New Teams, Old Problems
by robbiepoo2341
Summary: In the wake of two different alien invasions, the public isn't too happy with the X-Men, whose role in the invasion is coming under question. When public opinion invariably turns against the X-Men, our heroes find themselves trying to defend their right to exist without being 'controlled,' all while also balancing some brand-new additions to the family.
1. New Beginnings but Also New Problems

**Notes: *Phew* Can you believe we're at twelve volumes? That's just nuts! CC and I are particularly excited about this one (she loves it a lot), but of course, if you haven't read Volume 11, make sure to go back to her profile to read "The Traitor, the Avenger, and the Killer" before you come here, because this volume leads directly on from the consequences of that one.**

 **Anyway, here we are … and here we go!**

* * *

 **Chapter 1: "New Beginnings But Also New Problems"**

* * *

When the new school year had started up at the freshly rebuilt institute, there was plenty of excitement not only over the new place but over the new faces — particularly little Krissy Wagner. None of the kids called her Kristina, not once they'd heard the nickname Logan had given her.

Of course, little Krissy _loved_ the attention — and with parents like Kate and Kurt, it was pretty much a given that she would, really. Even tiny as she was, it was clear that she simply adored being around as many people as possible, smoky yellow eyes wide and trying to take everything in at once every time she met someone new.

She was a little flirt, too, snuggling into _anybody_ who wanted to hold her, though of course, the students and teachers who tried had to put up with the fact that Krissy had zero control of her tail and kept hitting people with it… or hitting objects with it… or hitting bamfs with it.

The bamfs were fairly protective of their new little purple friend, too — and anyone who was holding Krissy had to put up with at least three of them hovering nearby at any given time. It was clear they had their own ideas about just what it was that the little one needed, too, because Logan often found himself teleported right to wherever Krissy was the second she got upset if Kate and Kurt weren't immediately available — and sometimes even if they were and the bamfs just thought their purple friend needed a cuddle.

It was still the first week of school, and Krissy still had the large gaggle of admirers that came with something so _brand new_. Tyler was holding her very carefully as one bamf was seated on his shoulder and giving him a side-eye as if he was worried Krissy might be nervous, but Krissy had snuggled right into him — until she decided that she had had enough and very loudly made it known.

In a heartbeat, the bamfs disappeared to go get Logan, reappearing with him in tow — even though he was already holding Elin, who gave the crying, half-squeaking little one her best 'what are you doing' expression.

"You guys are gonna have to stop this," Logan said, addressing the bamfs with a frown before he took the handful of steps closer to Krissy and Tyler. "Give her to me," he told Tyler, one arm extended.

"Do you want to switch?" Tyler offered. "You've already got your hands full…"

"They're little. She'll settle right out," he replied. "And Elin will help."

"Alright." Tyler shifted Krissy a bit so that Logan could take her, then had to smirk when the still fussy baby's tail hit Logan in the arm repeatedly. "Watch the tail."

"Yeah yeah," Logan replied as he gave Krissy a little look and Elin giggled. "Knock it off, Squeaky."

Tyler raised both eyebrows as he watched Krissy try to fuss for a little bit longer before she did, in fact, settle out, snuggling into Logan's side. Elin giggled when Krissy's tail moved on from hitting Logan to dancing in the air between the two baby girls — a clear sign that Krissy was happy to be where she was.

"Squeaky?" Tyler repeated.

"You heard her," Logan said with his brows drawn together a bit. "Not rocket science."

"How long did K wait before she gave her that name?" Tyler asked with a little laugh.

Logan just looked at him for a moment before glancing back down at Krissy. "She didn't. That's mine."

"Really?" Tyler looked genuinely surprised. "I thought… I mean, it's a bit—"

"What."

"Nothing." Tyler just grinned at Logan and the two very little girls. "It fits her. The squeaking."

"All my nicknames fit. That's why they stick," Logan told him before he headed back to where he'd been before the bamfs intervened — which happened to be chatting with Kurt in one of the ready rooms.

Kurt looked up with a little laugh when he saw Logan come in with both little ones. "So that's where you went," he teased.

"You gotta do something about that," Logan told him as he handed Krissy to Kurt. "There was no damn reason they couldn't have gotten you for your own daughter."

Kurt grinned down at the little purple ball of fluff as she curled into her dad. "I don't know what to tell you, Logan. I _have_ tried to talk to them. But they seem to think you are the solution to… everything." He couldn't quite hide the look of pure amusement on his face.

"Must be hitting the whiskey harder than I thought, then," Logan countered.

"Or perhaps they just see how good you are with her," Kurt replied, tipping his head down at the perfectly content little one in his arms.

"Squeaky only settles down for me because she knows I'm gonna hand her to you," Logan said with a shake of his head.

"And she knows there is the possibility you've got Elin with you," Kurt teased lightly.

"Yep. that's got to be the better part of it," Logan agreed.

Kurt shook his head and had to chuckle. "That and she knows her godfather," he pointed out.

Logan shifted a little and gave Kurt a look. "When is Strange supposed to be here again?"

"Any minute now," Kurt said, the smile slipping the slightest as he looked down at the snuggly purple girl. "He said he might be a bit late."

"They're always a _bit_ late," Logan muttered.

Kurt chuckled and nodded his agreement before the two men fell into a bit of silence, each wrapped up in their little girls. It was another few minutes before the last of their group _did_ arrive, as Strange entered the room.

"My apologies," Strange said as he seated himself. He placed his hands in front of him on the table, looked over the two men and their little girls, and had to crack a smile as he saw the scene before him. "What can I do for the… four of you?"

"A little peace of mind would be much appreciated," Kurt said as he fell into a small frown and shifted Krissy a little closer to himself. "You know when Kate was expecting, my father helped us to rescue her and some of our other friends from Sinister — and while he was there, he placed a spell on Kate and the little one." He glanced down at Krissy and then back up at Strange with a perfectly open expression. "Please tell me this ... this demonic spell isn't going to affect her salvation. I was hoping to have her baptized…."

Strange took a moment to weigh the question before he asked to hold the baby, studying her and muttering odd words quietly. After a moment, Krissy herself began to glow, and when he was finished, he simply smiled at the still sleeping infant before he handed her back to her father. "While there is a protection, and it's true that your father gains some strength from his descendants, the fact remains that this child is less connected to him than you are." Strange looked at Kurt with a bit of a twinkle in his eyes. "Do you have any aversion to holy water?"

Kurt shook his head. "No, I keep a vial of it in the blackbird."

"If you're concerned, I'd suggest trying a bit of holy water on her," Strange said with a little smile growing at the corner of his mouth. "After all, an evil spell has no foothold against the grace of God." With a true grin now in place, Strange continued with Kurt's own favorite phrase. "Have a little faith."

Kurt couldn't help but smile and nod his agreement at the familiar refrain before he leaned back and looked down at Krissy.

"I think you give your father a bit too much credit, Kurt," Strange said.

"I... " Kurt laughed and shook his head lightly. "You're right, of course. I just … wanted to be sure. She is my daughter… I just want to keep her safe."

"I understand," Strange replied with a soothing tone. "Truly I do. But if anything, it seems that a baptism may remove the effects of whatever he's done."

Kurt looked all the more relieved to hear it. " _Danke_ ," he whispered over Krissy's head. "That was exactly what I hoped to hear."

* * *

The pews in the Catholic church had been fairly full that Sunday. It seemed every X-Man who could attend little Krissy's baptism had turned out for it. Even Erik was there with Lorna, Alex, and their own little girl — though the four of them were planning to disappear for a while after the event. Alex wanted to track down his dad so he could force him to meet his new granddaughter, and Erik was a little wary of letting the new little one travel in space without him after the recent invasions. But they had postponed the trip until they could see Krissy's baptism, and it was plain to see from the look on Erik's face that he was loving every minute of the pure family bliss.

As for Krissy, the little purple princess was an angel for Father Murray, and by the time the little Wagner family was headed home from the church, Krissy was completely asleep, little squeaky snores sounding out on occasion from the backseat of the car.

Kurt seemed to be significantly more relaxed now and positively beaming as he hummed the hymns from the service to himself, occasionally glancing up in the rearview mirror as little Krissy slept peacefully on. Kate couldn't help but to keep grinning over at him out of the corner of her gaze as well, laughing quietly at how over the moon he was.

She really should have seen this coming since Jubilee showed her that picture of Kurt with a four-year-old Katie. He was positively _glowing_.

And of course, he wasn't the only one. Kate hadn't been able to stop smiling through the whole service. And Kurt wasn't alone in turning a little bit overprotective, either. Kate had finally sold that purple car of hers. She didn't want to drive her precious little princess around in the most recognizable car in New York. So, she traded out the purple bug for a deep blue Mazda.

She'd never seen Scott look so relieved.

Kate glanced over at Kurt for a moment and couldn't help but smile when she realized she'd caught him looking her way as well. She smiled softly as she reached over, took his hand in one of her own, and squeezed it. "What're you thinking about, cutie?" she asked him with a teasing smile, and he grinned back at her.

"I was thinking that I have been blessed beyond measure," he told her and gently raised her hand to his lips.

"Good answer," she teased as she lazily pulled the car to a stop at a red light and glanced once more back at the sleeping little one. "And you know — I think you're probably right."

He smiled contentedly as they let their hands fall in the space between their seats, the quiet song playing over the radio the only sound in the car for a while before the song ended and the "on the hour" news overview started up.

Even riding the high with their little family all settled into their new lives, Kate and Kurt couldn't help but glance at each other with a bit of a frown on hearing the radio broadcast about the continuing investigation as to the beginnings of the Kree invasion. In particular, it seemed there was a lot of interest around Noh and K — since they were publicly seen in the broadcast with Ronan. Clint was an Avenger, so the public could wrap their minds around him, but the other two ... a Kree and a feral… they were under serious suspicion.

It didn't help that the Kree had been vocal about placing the blame on K, saying that she had, essentially, fired the first shot of the war when she killed the Accuser that they'd sent with Sinta. Their version of events had the two Accusers painted as simply messengers who had been wronged and mistreated — and for some reason, that's the version of events people believed. Never mind that Sinta had been peacefully released after the invasion or that the Kree had been the ones that had more or less invited war.

There were international investigations being headed up, probes into not only K but the X-Men in general and their involvement in the war. J. Jonah Jameson was on another smear campaign, this time trying to dredge up as much as he could about K, which so far wasn't more than what was already publicly known, but that wouldn't last. As annoying as JJ was, he had a talent for finding the skeletons in people's closets.

For now, though, the focus was simply on the fact that no one knew who she was or where she came from. "All we know is that one day she showed up with these X-Men with an _obviously_ fake name and no records. They _claim_ to be on our side, but here we have right out in the open an unregistered, powerful, unknown mutant declaring war with an entire alien race and letting us take the consequences!" JJ's voice rang out over the radio in the news clip. "What's the point of wasting taxpayer money registering these mutants if they're just going to ignore the laws and keep on exactly the way they were before with no consequences?"

The reporter on the other side of JJ cleared her throat for a moment. "There are reports from non-Kree sources — from Avengers' eyewitness accounts that the Kree declared war first."

"This is what happens when you just read the summary and not the notes themselves," JJ said derisively. "They threatened war, sure, but it was a negotiation — and instead of trying to diffuse the situation and sit down with them, this mutant woman killed the head negotiator and tortured the second, who was a known _friendly_ to these X-Men." Even without seeing JJ's face, they could hear the sneer in his voice. "If this is how they treat their friends…!"

"Would you really characterize that relationship as friendly?" the reporter asked. "They had contact, but—"

"They've had a Kree on their team for years!" JJ pointed out in his usual angry shout. "And it shouldn't come as a surprise that these terrorists recruited for _their 'team'_ a Kree who burned profanity into New York City as a _greeting card_!" He was really working himself up into a fervor. "At least the _Avengers_ had Captain Mar-Vell — these mutants have an arsonist and a criminal!"

"But we all saw the broadcast — they were prisoners of the Kree, not allies."

"And didn't you pay _any_ attention to what the Kree called them?" JJ asked. "We know this 'K' was the one who started the war in the first place, and this Noh-Varr was a 'traitor.' You can't betray someone you didn't first have their trust! What was he before he was a traitor? Spy? Saboteur? We don't know anything about this alien before he burned a great big hole in our city!"

"So you're saying those two are responsible for _all_ that went down in June's invasion?" the reporter opposite him asked skeptically.

"I'm saying — what else don't we know?" JJ thundered back. "If these powerful players can just waltz onto the stage and act out an entire war of aggression — one, I might add, they could have stopped any time- without us knowing about it; just look at the Shi'ar! — what was the point of all that taxpayer money wasted creating a system that was supposed to keep us from being ignorant of these _very things_?"

"So what are you suggesting?"

" _I'm_ not suggesting anything!" JJ insisted. "I just want the government to do its _job_ like it's supposed to do and keep the rest of us safe from these superpowered beings running around destroying our lives with no accountability!"

Kate and Kurt glanced at each other as the news overview moved on to other topics of interest — like the laws being bounced around state houses debating how to hold heroes 'accountable,' like they needed that on top of everything else going on.

Kurt let out a sigh. "And so it goes again," he said with a frown, tipping his head at the radio.

"You sure I can't just… shoot JJ?" Kate asked, only half-joking.

"If we did, they'd only blame Logan and K for it," Kurt replied with a smirk.

"Oh yes. Those darn ferals. Drawing back my bowstring. With my hands. Using my arrows. How diabolical." Kate smirked right back at him.

"They'd say that Daken made you do it — and of course, for this hypothetical, they all run in a pack together, of course," Kurt said, half smiling.

"Guess this is a bad time for him to be mending fences with his dad," Kate said, shaking her head before she let out a sigh and glanced once more at Krissy. "Stupid JJ."

"Well, one thing that shall likely remain constant with Logan is that he doesn't put much weight in public opinion. I'm sure K is the same way," Kurt replied.

"Yeah, they're both pretty thick-skinned," Kate agreed with a small smile before she squeezed his hand for a moment. "Still. Last time they were beating the battle drums like this in the news, you had to rescue me out of a castle tower," she added, the smile widening the slightest bit. "I'm just glad Bastion's not around anymore — he'd like half the crap being peddled right now."

"Sadly, even with him gone, someone will try to step forward to take his place."

"Well then. Gimme your shirt and _Jubes,_ and we'll take him down too," she said. "Or her, as the case may be," she added with a small chuckle.

"Of course we will," Kurt agreed, though neither of them addressed the fact that they spent most of the ride back checking frequently on little Krissy in the backseat, wondering just what kind of world they'd just brought their daughter into.

* * *

 **(A/N): As a note, before you ask, yes, JJ is going on the warpath against mutants. Yes, there is a reason for it. No, it isn't just his usual diatribe. Wait and see. ;)**


	2. Mob Mentality

**Notes: Well, CC and I write pretty much every single day (with the exception of sick days and holidays and such), so honestly... we could probably stop writing any time and still have years' worth of material at the rate we're editing and publishing. I'd say we're doing at least a chapter a day, probably more like two or three on really good days. So... thus... the very big universe ;)**

* * *

 **Chapter 2: "Mob Mentality"**

* * *

The ferals had returned to the mansion ahead of the crowd, having left a solid fifteen minutes before the Wagner clan did. Elin was sleepy, and they were glad to be back to home base where they could at least relax a bit and stretch out. However, when they got into the house, Peter Parker was quick to wave them over to the living room to see in living color as JJ ranted on screen.

"You guys are in trouble — you especially," Peter said, pointing a finger toward K. "He's not going to stop until he's dragged your name through the mud."

K looked to Logan and then to Peter as she bounced Elin on her hip. "Well then, I guess it's good he doesn't know what my name is, isn't it?" She said the last part toward Elin with a smile as the little one grinned a gummy-mouthed, toothless smile and half cooed to her mother as she put her hand on K's cheek.

"This isn't a joke, K. He's going to make your life miserable," Peter warned.

"Petey," K said, taking a quick step toward him to pop up on her toes and kiss his cheek. "It'll be fine." She patted his cheek a couple times, and with that, the little group of ferals headed upstairs, leaving Peter alone with JJ ranting on about the dangers of these mutants — and the ferals in particular.

But Pete wasn't alone long. A very loud group of kids came all but crashing into the kitchen a few minutes later, all chatting excitedly among themselves. This particular group had gotten much closer since the start of the school year when the junior X-Men had started up again and they'd become a team. A few old faces like Rico and Hisako were priding themselves on showing some of the other kids the ropes — Tyler was on the team, of course, as well as the scaly half-mermaid Sophia, the blonde telepath Tammy, and the dark-skinned animal whisperer Brye.

And they were all riding the high of their new positions.

"Aww, who left the news on?" Rico asked with a frown. "That's just depressing lately."

His girlfriend, Ziggy — who wasn't part of the team because she'd rather invent and follow Forge around than fight — giggled at him and rolled her eyes. "Oh, I wonder."

"Um. that would be _me_ ," Peter said in a voice of disbelief. "You guys really should stay up on the news if you're going to be on this X-Men junior … light team."

"We _do_ pay attention — give us some credit," Brye said, waving her hand. She tossed Hisako a bag of chips as they raided the pantry for snacks. "But listening to it 24/7 is depressing, you have to admit."

"That is why you don't listen to it 24/7?" Peter said. "Or you could end up with a sense of humor like Bobby … totally off-base and badly-timed."

"Great. Then you won't mind if we watch the baseball game?" Rico asked.

"Just as soon as JJ's done. Can't let him go running rampant and not know what he's saying."

"I thought you didn't like JJ," Sophia said quietly. Her girlfriend, Brye, handed her a water bottle, which she downed quickly before she shot Brye a little smile that made her scales sparkle a slight pink.

Peter tipped his head to one side as he watched Jameson turn a brilliant red. "I don't? But … it's almost impossible to fight back when you don't know what's going on, and some of our members aren't paying attention at all when they really, really should." Peter frowned deeper in spite of himself as he thought about how flippant both Howletts had been moments ago.

"They have tiny, squeaky elves and little bitty babies to distract them," Brye said almost under her breath with a smirk, though she hadn't turned away from Sylvia, her dark eyes dancing with laughter as she kept pushing the snack bowl that little bit further away from her at the last second.

"Which is _why_ I'm watching it now," Peter pointed out without taking his gaze off of the screen. "That and it'll help my Jameson impression later."

"You going as him for Halloween again?" Tyler asked with a grin, settling into a seat with his feet propped up before he casually reached over to tip Brye's chair enough that she nearly fell and had to right herself — giving Sylvia the opportunity to fight back.

"What's wrong with that?" Pete shrugged. "It's a sure fire laugh."

"And an easy way to lose your voice," Hisako chuckled.

"Sure, but that only happened once."

"I'd be happy to help you stay hydrated," Sophia teased, waving her water bottle at him. "I've got a good supply."

"Well if we're not going to watch the baseball game, what should we do in the meantime?" Brye asked, leaning back in her chair so that two of the legs were off the ground — practically an invitation to Tyler, though he was distracted by Tammy taking a seat by him. "We should do _something_ fun before the Boring Kitten over here goes back to NYU for the week."

"Yeah, gotta make the most out of the weekends," Tammy agreed, and it didn't escape Peter's notice that she had bumped Tyler's hand with hers as she said it.

Tyler looked a bit red-faced. "Hey, I've got to—"

"—keep up your grades, be a doctor, save the world, blah blah," Brye broke in, making a mouth with her hand as she said it. "Yeah, we know." She leaned forward with a bit of sparkle in her eyes. "But before then — let's go out. Maybe go for a drive, window shop some Halloween costumes for next month. You know they're stocking more X-Men stuff after last year's party when everyone went as the teachers…"

"We don't need to _buy_ X-Men stuff — we _are_ X-Men!" Rico pointed out.

"We could always just… go out to a party," Ziggy suggested. "I'm sure we can find something."

"And if we can't, we can always call up Cassie or Tommy," Tammy said with a small smirk. "They know where the fun parties are."

"Well, let's see what we can find," Brye said, and with that, the small tornado of activity that was seven teenagers in one place swept past Peter and left him in the kitchen with JJ again.

By the time the kids hit town, someone had the bright idea to go out in their uniforms, because their little team hadn't really made its in-the-field debut, and they decided that was a shame. They ended up window-shopping after all — because, Tyler insisted, it was a _Sunday,_ and he wanted to do something a little more laid-back — and laughing down the streets in between every store as they kept trying to come up with codenames for their fledgling X-Men group.

"I mean, Hisako and Tyler already have theirs," Brye pointed out.

"Still think you should've stuck with Kitten Whiskers," Tammy whispered low enough for Tyler to hear, and he shot her a look in time to catch her grinning at him before they both looked away again.

"I was thinking about something like... The Scorpion, instead of Scorpion Boy. More… striking, right?" Rico made a pose as he flexed his muscles and his admittedly very scorpion-like tail.

"Sure, if you want people to think you're a supervillain," Hisako teased him.

Rico looked put out for a second before Ziggy said, "I kinda like it," which just had him grinning outright and puffing out his chest.

"What about you, Brye?" Sophia asked. "Do you have anything picked out?"

"Oh yeah." Brye broke into a wide grin as she struck her best action hero pose. "Artemis, goddess of the hunt. And you know. Also awesome at archery — and I got the highest marks in Professor Hawkeye's class last year when you don't count the _cheaters_." She grinned over at Tammy.

"Teachers Pet," Ziggy teased her.

"Hey, you're just jealous you can't hit the target when it's five feet in front of you," Brye teased right back.

"What about you, Tammy?" Tyler prompted, nudging her shoulder with his.

"Oh, I don't… really know?" she admitted, slightly red-faced.

"That's okay," Sophia assured her. "I don't really have one either. Everybody just calls me the Little Mermaid, but I _so_ don't want that to stick."

"Too late on that one," Tyler smirked.

"Well, let's just… let's put our heads together," Hisako suggested. "I'm sure we can come up with something for both of you. It's not like 'Armor' was really inventive, was it?"

"Well, it's hard to beat the Disney movie name when my power is _singing people into submission_ ," Sophia pointed out, the scales underneath her eyes flashing a bit more pink than usual.

"But hey, you win the talent show every year," Rico pointed out.

"Not fair when she mesmerizes the judges," Brye argued, pretending to be put out by the cheating.

"Hey, work with your talents, right?" Sophia teased. "You could try that one of these days."

"What, start up a chorus of little songbirds and risk the codename Snow White? No thanks," Brye laughed out loud.

"Yes, we can be princesses together," Sophia replied with a little laugh. "I'll still be more popular, though."

"That's because you have the better movie," Brye reasoned. "Mine is like forever old and kind of creepy."

"Well, maybe we can find you a better music-related name?" Tammy offered, pointing at a music shop down the street. "I mean, your name doesn't have to be about how you _look_."

"We could call her the Treble Maker," Rico offered, and Ziggy visibly winced at the horrible pun and smacked him upside the head.

They were halfway across the street and nearly to the shop when a tall guy with an obvious glare stepped into their path. He was taller than all of them there but Tyler, but he went right up to the big blonde with a sneer. "I know who you are," the guy said very loudly.

"Sorry, I think you have me confused with someone else," Tyler said with a little friendly, tight, not-quite smile.

"Not a chance," the guy said, waving his hand dismissively as he stepped further into Tyler's space. "I've seen you on the news. One of those _feral_ mutants, right?"

"That's kind of generalizing things overly much," Tyler said with a little frown.

But the guy kept right on — and was starting to draw the attention of a few other people with how loud and obnoxious he was being. "I've heard about _ferals_ ," he said with relish. "They were saying on the news how untamed and savage they are." He got right up in Tyler's face, though to Tyler's credit, he didn't back down, nor did he do anything that the guy might claim was provocation. "I know how you freaks're always saying you're the next step up in evolution, but it looks to me like you're a step _back_."

Tyler didn't shift the way he was standing in the slightest except to narrow his eyes. "You know, if I'm supposed to be all that savage, what makes you think it's smart to get in my face and try to start something?"

"Go ahead and try it, feral," he sneered.

"Hey, I'm just walking down the street," Tyler said, though there was the slightest touch of a growl to his voice. It wasn't something he could exactly stop when his hackles were raised like they were.

"Yeah? Well we don't want you here — so turn around and walk somewhere else," said one of the guy's buddies. About three of them seemed to be getting up the courage to come join the harassing when it was clear Tyler wasn't going to attack their friend. But it would have been difficult to walk somewhere else when the guys were starting to surround them.

"That's what we were just doing," Tyler said. "Leaving — until your little buddy got in our way."

One of the guys got close enough to leer in Brye's direction. "That's right, feral freak — you run along. But leave your lovely friends here," he said in what was more of a slurred out sentence than anything else that left the heady scent of alcohol so obviously that they didn't have to have Tyler's enhanced senses to smell it.

The last bit of that sentence had all of them frozen to the spot, but before any of them could even begin to think about it, Tyler let loose a snarl at the guy that had all of them stepping back a few paces. They'd never ever heard him do that before — and it was substantial.

The guys that had been circling in closer backed quickly off, but the first one, the one that had approached them, looked over at the gathering crowd with wide eyes. "What'd I tell you?" he shouted out. "Dangerous and savage! That… that _thing_ could kill all of us!"

There were a few murmurs of assent from the crowd before someone had the bright idea to pick up a bottle and throw it at the kids. In an instant, it was like a switch had been flipped, and the crowd seemed to get braver at their numbers as they followed suit, shouts of "freak" and other things echoing in the streets.

The kids tried to react defensively without making things any worse, with Hisako pulling an armor around herself and Tammy trying to telekinetically hold back several of the crowd members. Rico was standing in front of Ziggy and trying to scare people off with the business end of his tail, and Brye had freaked out more than a few members of the crowd asking a few dozen cockroaches to crawl up their legs — which had them running fast.

Sophia was half hiding behind Brye as she swallowed hard a few times and tried to get her mouth to not be so dry so she could sing a few bars to get the crowd to calm down, but someone got close enough to pop her in the mouth.

But that was too much for Tyler, who simply shot toward the biggest threat in the crowd and backhanded him across the street, still growling and snarling.

Things were really starting to get out of hand. The crowd backed off at first but then seemed to rally, picking up whatever they could find laying in the street as they moved to come back at Tyler and the rest of the teens — though it was clear Tyler was the object of most of their rage, since "feral" was the word thrown around almost as much as the usual "freaks" and "muties."

But it wasn't until there was a whoop of a police siren that the kids really thought they were in deep trouble. After all, they were X-Men. They could handle a few bottles, right?

The state police car that cut through the crowd slow and easy was both a welcome and terrifying sight to the group of teenagers. It meant that the crowd had to part and left them alone, but on the other hand, they were sure the police would blame them somehow.

At least that was the case until they saw that it was Anton, Scott and Annie's brother-in-law, that was there to bust up the crowd.

"Break it up," Anton called out to the crowd. "Move along, everybody. More officers are en route."

"Good thing, too — you'll need an army for these freaks. There's a _feral_ here, officer," shouted one of the guys that had started it.

"Last time I checked, that isn't illegal," Anton replied calmly. "But incitin' a riot and attackin' people walkin' down the street is. Now — you wanna tell me exactly what happened here, or should I draw my own conclusions?"

"We were going to the music shop and these guys started harassing us," Brye called out, still standing in front of Sylvia protectively and glaring in particular at the guy who had been leering at them.

"I figured as much when the first thing out of this gentleman's mouth was bigoted crap," Anton replied, giving the man in question a harsh look.

"But, officer — you weren't there when that one snarled at them," called out a woman in the crowd. "I've never seen anything so _animalistic_!"

"Is it illegal to do that?" Anton shot back — and the kids suddenly realized how very, very lucky they were that he was the one to respond to the scene when they saw how confused the crowd looked by Anton's pro-mutant stance. "As far as I'm concerned, that more or less falls under freedom of speech. Now break it up, or I'll have you arrested for rioting."

At the threat, the crowd seemed to lose much of its gusto, and slowly, a few of them started to break off. When Anton glared at those that seemed to take too long, the process sped up until, finally, he was left with just the kids, who were all nursing a few nicks and scrapes and bruises from various things being thrown at them — and Sophia had a busted lip.

"You guys need a ride home?" Anton asked, already doing a mental head count as a second car pulled up, clearly figuring out how to divvy them up. "Because you shouldn't be here in the middle of all this noise like this."

"That would be good, thanks," Tammy agreed quietly, half-hidden behind Tyler, though she kept glancing up at him uncertainly. It wasn't clear if she'd been frightened by the snarl or if she was worried about Tyler's well-being or if it was some combination of both, but the slight blonde didn't seem to want to get too far away from him.

"We just wanted to go window shopping," Sophia tried to explain, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand and smearing a trail of red blood on her beautiful scales.

"Get in," Anton said with a sigh. He made sure to take Rico and Tyler with him, too, since Rico was the most obviously mutated, and Tyler was a feral.

The kids all shared looks between them before they did just that, all climbing in after Anton and looking a bit miserable at how their Sunday evening plans had turned out.

"We — we probably shouldn't have worn the uniforms," Tammy said, trying to sound reasonable once they were all loaded up.

Anton shook his head at them as they headed down the road. "You should know, Scott will be waiting for you when you get back."

"You called him?" Rico asked, sounding betrayed.

"Of course I called him," Anton said with a bark of a laugh. "What the heck did you think I was gonna do? Just drop you off at the road? I get a call about a buncha kids runnin' 'round in uniforms and startin' up a ruckus, and y'all think I'm _not_ gonna call him? He was about to come on down himself."

"That would have been bad," Ziggy said, pulling a face.

"Listen," Anton said, dropping the laugh as he raised his eyebrows their way. "Y'all need to be careful the way folks are talkin'." But when the kids all looked tired and a bit depressed at that, he added, "You didn't do _anythin'_ wrong. Stupid maybe, but not wrong. Doesn't mean someone won't try an' work you over, though. People like that, they don't need an excuse to get up in your face with their stupid."

"We've gone into town before," Sophia almost pouted.

"Since the invasion?" Anton asked, looking at her in the rearview mirror.

"Um. Not really, no," she admitted quietly.

"Yeah, there've been protests up on campus, but… I haven't seen this," Tyler muttered. "Not since I was on my own — or, well, before I came to the school."

"It's gonna get worse," Anton told him honestly. "Ain't like it's never happened before. And even though you were probably in the right, _I don't want to know, so don't get into it_." He paused and took a breath. "You need to be more careful. Not every beat cop on the street's gonna be as understandin' as I am."

"Yeah, okay — no more running around in uniform," Rico said with a sigh. "We _just_ got these," he added in an undertone to Ziggy, who gave him a look that clearly said he should shut up.

"There ain't nothin' wrong with the uniform," Anton said. "But it has its place. Wear it while you're _workin'._ "

The kids sort of fell silent, knowing he was right, as they rode the rest of the way back to the school — where, as promised, Scott was waiting for them. He wasn't alone, either — Logan was waiting with him, both of them with their arms crossed and deep frowns on their faces.

"Good luck," Anton said as the car came to a stop. "You're gonna need it, from the look of things."

"Looks like," Brye muttered in agreement. The kids shared another somber look before they started to file out of the car.

"Thanks for picking us up," Sophia muttered Anton's way as she left. "I really didn't want to have to walk home after that."

"Wasn't gonna leave you kids hangin'," Anton said, shooting her an encouraging smile before he and his partner headed off again.

"What happened?" Scott asked as soon as all the kids were out. "Anton said there were reports you guys were 'disturbing the peace' — which I'm sure isn't what happened. So what gives?"

"We weren't disturbing _anything_ ," Brye insisted.

"So you didn't do anything at all?" Logan asked, half glaring.

"Well…" Sophia looked up at Tyler for a second, and the much, much taller boy looked embarrassed.

"Spill," Logan directed.

"It wasn't his fault," Tammy insisted, louder than usual for the shy blonde. "These guys just came up and got in his face, and he was really good trying to get them to back off until they… um." She glanced over at Brye. "They were being really creepy to us."

"They wanted us to leave the girls behind," Rico supplied for her, standing a bit in front of Ziggy still.

"And …" Scott prompted. "What happened?"

"I snarled at him," Tyler admitted, looking thoroughly ashamed of himself. "And that sort of ... set off the whole crowd."

Logan raised an eyebrow at that. "You do it on purpose?"

"No." Tyler shook his head, the frown settling in even deeper than before. "It just… happened."

That got Logan and Scott to share a look very quickly before Logan let out a slow breath and nodded, though neither of them said anything.

"We weren't trying to start a fight," Sophia said, peeking out from behind Tyler as well.

"Doesn't matter what you were _trying_ to do," Scott said, sounding tired — since this was only too familiar to him.

"We only defended ourselves," Brye added. She had a tight hold of Sylvia's hand that it didn't look like she was going to relinquish. "Nobody actually _attacked_ anybody — not really."

"Not really?" Scott repeated, both eyebrows up and clearly a bit on edge at that.

"Well…" Sophie rubbed her mouth absently with the back of her hand as she looked up at Tyler. "Somebody hit me in the mouth, and Ty… hit them back."

"Defending you," Logan said with a slow nod.

"Right," Sophie agreed quickly when Tyler looked like he might say something else. "He was defending all of us."

"You alright with me dealin' with him?" Logan said low to Scott.

"Probably be good if you did," Scott replied just as low. "He's never done anything like that before."

"Good," Logan said with a nod. "I'll get him outta your way and … see what I can do."

Tyler looked a bit nervous, since he could hear the two of them when the other kids couldn't. But Tammy gave him a little smile and a wave as he followed after Logan, even after he could hear Scott telling the kids that they would be running with him and Logan every morning at dawn for two weeks.

Logan led Tyler off down the halls and to the ready room, only to hold the door open until he'd taken a seat and then locked it behind them. "What happened, _exactly_?" Logan asked. "I don't give a damn who said what. I want to know what tripped you."

"One of those guys got way too close to Brye — and made some comments about leaving the 'lovely' friends behind," Tyler told him, his lip curled the slightest bit like he was near a snarl just at the memory.

"That's it? He didn't try and push you around or grab her?" Logan leaned against the table with his eyes narrowed, watching him carefully.

Tyler shook his head. "Not him — but his buddy was right up in my face."

Logan took a few minutes thinking it over before he finally shook his head. "Coulda been a helluva lot worse."

"Yeah. Anton got there to break it up," Tyler agreed.

"I meant _you_. You could have been a lot worse," Logan clarified. "Or a whole lot better too." He shook his head and didn't give Tyler a chance to say anything else before he added, "Until I say so, you're mine after classes."

Tyler looked surprised but just nodded. "What're we doing?"

Logan didn't react in the least or give away anything with his expression. "Just gonna have to wait and see. Oh, and you'll be joinin' your buddies at dawn every mornin' for a run for the next two weeks, too."

"Right." Tyler just nodded, though he still looked pretty curious as to what Logan's plans were. "I guess I'll just see you in the morning then."

"Don't be late," Logan advised before he opened the door to the ready room. "Scott won't be in the best of moods."

"Yeah, I'll bet," Tyler said with an attempt at a smirk. "Sorry about that."

"Doesn't bug me," Logan replied. "Far as I'm concerned, he's always like that."

"Yeah, well, we try not to make him worse," Tyler assured him, then shouldered past him and headed to go find the other kids.

He didn't get too far, though, before he ran into Hank, who frowned when he saw the look on Tyler's face.

"I take it your evening activities didn't quite go to plan," he said mildly.

Tyler let his shoulders drop, and he let out a long sigh. "I lost my temper," he admitted.

Hank's eyebrows shot up at the admission, and he gestured for Tyler to walk with him down to the lab. "I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that your momentary loss of control is related to the current dismal mood of the populace at large?"

Tyler let out a long sigh. "Yeah." He held up a hand. "I know how to handle it when it's just me, but these guys were creeping on the girls on the team."

Hank frowned at that and seemed to take a moment to think it over before he simply nodded once, slowly. "I find," he said at last, "that it's not worth the time to worry over ruffians when there are much better things to do with my time." He smiled up at Tyler and rested a hand on his shoulder. "Now. Best not to dwell on this sort of thing. Why don't you join me and your mother for a late-night movie?"

Tyler couldn't help but grin at that and nodded. "Thanks, Hank."


	3. John Jonah Jameson

**Notes: Yeah, actually hadn't planned on having very much of Laura in our universe because of the very thing you pointed out, Scruffy: she is being written as a bad copy of Logan, and they're doing a poor job of it at that. But I fell in love with Gabby after her appearance in the current Hawkeye run, and CC and I did some reworking to bring her into this universe... because honestly, Laura feels more like her own character when she's being a big sister, and we *do* want to explore the best possible versions of Marvel characters.**

 **But yeah, sweet Ty is having quite the rough time. And we're not done with him (or the other X-Men) just yet, either...**

* * *

 **Chapter 3: "John Jonah Jameson"**

* * *

K had to smirk to herself as the junior squad kids came in that morning, out of breath, sweaty, and looking like they'd been half beaten down in addition to running. Scott was a bit red-faced but more or less unbothered, and Logan … looked like he always did — though listening to the complaining kids clearly had the wheels turning in his head on how best to make them suffer tomorrow.

He made his way over to plant a little kiss on the top of her head before he headed up to hit the shower, and in his absence, Bobby came in and turned the news on — as he usually did on his arrival to the kitchen.

"He's getting started bright and early," Bobby commented in a thick voice as he poured his first cup of coffee. "There oughta be a law against giving him a microphone before ten A.M."

K chuckled and held out her mug for Bobby to top her off. Elin was giggling and playing in the little playpen just off the kitchen, so K was taking a moment to slowly wake up. But she was forced to pay attention as JJ seemed to be on a full on rant — and the show had only been on the air for five minutes. "He really is worked up today, isn't he?" she asked before she actually honed in on what he was saying.

"All I'm asking for is a little transparency and accountability," JJ said. "We know next to nothing about this woman, and while we're picking up the pieces, she's continuing on as a non-entity, not concerned with things like consequences or _laws_." He twisted his moustache for a moment. "I'm telling you — the skeletons that must be in that woman's closet. What's got her so scared to come defend herself from starting a _war_? You'd think _that_ would be her worst offense, but something worse scared her off."

"Hey Bobby, put some popcorn on; this oughta be enlightening," K said with a smirk. "Let's see how good he really is."

Bobby looked like he couldn't believe K could use the word "good" to describe JJ, but he turned it up anyway as JJ continued to rant.

"I'm sure it wouldn't surprise any _thinking_ person to know that this person walking around with the X-Men _unregistered_ and unchecked isn't even on our _side_ ," JJ said with relish as he leaned forward. "In fact, she's been involved in multiple strikes against legitimate agencies meant to cripple their ability to protect us. She's got a kill list that would blow your mind — and those are just the ones you _won't_ lose your lunch reading. This woman is vicious, and we're letting her run around with no oversight!"

"Better tell Fury he's out of a job," K said dryly as Bobby smirked alongside her.

"That's why she's not out here telling her side of the story, like the Avengers are," JJ said conclusively. "And that's only what I've seen from a few of the crimes and misdeeds she's committed, and I haven't even been through the rest of what I've found. But trust me, there's enough in here to make the headlines for a _month_ before I run out of material. And she knows she's got no defense for her laundry list of crimes — so she's staying in the shadows. No one is pulling her out of her hiding place to demand answers, and I want to know why!"

"Yeah, I bet you're trying to pull her too. You even called yet, JJ?" Kate grumbled out at the TV as she came down to breakfast a bit earlier than usual, a wide-awake Krissy in her arms clearly the culprit of her early-morning wakeup call.

"Good morning, sunshine," K sang out. "How are things with our little purple elfling?"

"She seems to think if she's sleeping, she's missing all the action," Kate said, as Krissy stared around wide-eyed and tried to take it all in, her tail in constant motion.

"She is not wrong," K replied as she pushed her coffee mug away. "Want a break?"

"I'm okay," Kate said, even as she gently handed Krissy over so she could pour herself some coffee that Krissy _wouldn't_ tip over with her out-of-control tail.

"You missed the parade of sad, sad teenagers," K told her as she dipped her finger into her coffee and let Krissy have a taste — which, unsurprisingly, she seemed to enthusiastically enjoy. "We're just watching JJ get his panties twisted."

"I heard — even with the door closed," Kate said, shaking her head.

"He does have a voice that carries."

Kate shook her head as she listened to JJ going on and on in the background before she finally turned back to K, this time with a slightly more troublemaking look. "You know I have an in at the studio. You want to crush him on-air, I can make it happen in a second."

"Yeah? Might be fun," K admitted. "Besides, you're right. There has been no outreach at all." She smiled with a wicked sparkle in her eyes. "Think you could get it to happen without tipping him off first? I'll bet he'd wet his pants if I sat down next to him without warning."

"Oh yeah." Kate grinned wider. "I've got a friend at the studio — Tina — she's in charge of setting up the segments and she's definitely on our side."

"Well. If we're gonna do this, let's do it right. I'll call my _lawyer_ and let him send a shot over his bow. Slanderous to say that we're not responding when we haven't been contacted," K said, still smiling as she gave Krissy another drop of coffee. "Isn't that right, little one? Even babies know you need to be invited first."

Krissy looked very pleased with herself as her tail continued to switch back and forth, occasionally thumping K's hands or arm, though outside of that, the little girl was contented to taste the coffee and behave for her.

"I'll make you a list of contacts," Kate promised. "When do you want to crush him?"

"I don't know," K said with a little wave of her hand. "Have Scott figure that part out. Not like I have any new wars to start on my schedule."

"You mean outside of the one you're starting with JJ," Kate said with a smirk.

"Oh, well. I guess if you follow his line of thinking, that would be accurate. Seeing as I didn't fire the first shot with him any more than I started the _end_ of the Kree thing," K replied.

"Probably oughta have Scott do most of the arrangements, actually," Bobby told Kate. "Technically, K's your employee. Secretary. Whatever."

"Doubt he'll even catch that part," K said.

"Yeah, but as Pete's always saying — JJ has a way of finding things as soon as you say 'he won't catch it,'" Bobby pointed out with a smirk. "I can't wait to see his spin on what she's doing as a secretary at Bishop Publishing. That oughta be fun."

"Oh yeah. I'm employing dangerous people in my pro-mutant crusade and all that," Kate laughed. "Alright. I'll grab Scott and give him some names." Kate finished up her cup of coffee and then set down the mug. "C'mon, Krissy. Your Aunt K does _not_ need to be feeding you more caffeine. Like your problem isn't staying up all night already."

"But she likes it," K said with a little grin. "And it's just a thimbleful."

"She takes after her mother," Kurt agreed as he too joined the little group for breakfast, which only had Kate giving him a look that clearly told him what she thought of his defection.

"You can't leave now," K said. "Kurt had said something just yesterday about how much he wanted to make you breakfast. I could have sworn I heard something about a muffin?"

Kurt shot K a very, very dry look. "Well then, I will have to be true to my word and make breakfast for my princesses — even if I don't remember saying any such thing."

"I bet I know what her favorite kind is," K teased with a growing grin.

"Coffee cake," Kate said with a smirk.

"Oh, I was going to say chocolate chip," K said, blinking innocently at Kurt.

"I was thinking I'd make pancakes instead," Kurt said pointedly, and Kate grinned at him and slipped over to press a kiss to his cheek.

"Aww. You spoil me," she said. When he grinned right back at her, she stood up on her toes to kiss him again and whisper, "And blueberry muffins later," just to tweak him.

K half snorted into her coffee at that, quick to cover her mouth with her hand as the two of them kept right on flirting over the batch of pancakes Kurt was making.

* * *

Tyler was still worn out by the end of the school day. He'd had to get up far too early for the run, and then he felt as if he was playing catch up for the rest of the day after that. So as the last class for the day came to a close, the overwhelming feeling of anxiousness grew exponentially with every passing minute. He still had no idea what Logan had in store for him — and the last thing that he needed was to have his butt kicked in some crazy feral self defense scenario on top of everything else.

When he got back from campus, he dropped off his books and gave Tammy a tired little smile as he passed her on his way to head down to the entry where Logan had told him to meet him. The entryway likely meant more outside time. Which ... could mean anything.

When he got there, he had to stare for a moment. Logan's attire did nothing to relax him. Jeans and flannel. No shoes. It looked like he was, in fact, going to get some kind of feraly crash course.

"Kick off your shoes, and let's go," Logan directed him, and Tyler cautiously did just that, staring at his teacher and childhood hero with a bit of measured caution. He'd heard Jubilee and Bobby talk about some of his punishments, and this … did not bode well.

But, to his surprise, Logan didn't _seem_ to be doing anything that could be interpreted as horrible outside of taking him down near the lake. When they walked out to the end of the dock where there was a large platform, he was sure this was going to be one of those 'fight or swim' moments, so he was all the more taken off-guard when Logan simply sat down, cross legged and looked up at him, waiting for him to do the same.

Tyler looked around and hesitantly had a seat, now curious as to what Logan had in mind.

"You didn't do a thing wrong last night, Ty," Logan told him finally, though he looked as if it was almost hard to say it. "You tried to keep your friends safe from a threat — and contrary to what you've convinced yourself, there isn't anything wrong with being a feral. You just need to learn control so it doesn't take you by surprise again."

"So ... what …"

"We're going to meditate, for starters," Logan told him. "I'm going to help you learn to balance it — fitting in with regular people and the wild side that tried to slip out last night. It's not a bad thing. And it looks like you've done one helluva job to rein it in, but if you'd been able to tap into it easier to start with, you would have known your breaking point — and it wouldn't have gotten away from you."

"The snarl?" Tyler asked, relaxing a bit as he realized he wasn't going to get one of the fabled punishment — _and_ that this meant a whole lot of time with Wolverine.

But Logan shook his head. "Snarls happen. This is more 'bout how you let yourself get riled by that guy. Your reaction to them threatening the girls was _mild_. Even now, I probably wouldn't have been able to stop with hitting him once, but I want to make sure you _keep it_ at one hit." He paused and let his shoulders relax a bit. "Guy had it coming."

Tyler smirked the tiniest bit but froze when Logan spoke again.

"Your mom did a great job raising you, but if you got anything from your dad outside of looks — _you need to control it before it gets worse._ " The look he was giving Tyler was one that certainly got his point across, and Tyler's eyes widened a bit as he nodded his agreement and quickly made to copy Logan's body position.

Ten minutes later, some of the anxiety was slipping away, and the birds around them started to sing again. Logan had picked a perfect spot for this kind of lesson. Peaceful, surrounded by water, and secluded. Tyler took in a deep breath and just … relaxed, hoping that the rest of his one-on-one time with Logan remained so peaceful.

* * *

When the time came for K to face off with JJ on his panel, Kurt offered to come with her — though in his inducer, so that they wouldn't draw too much of the worst kind of attention, especially when he'd been caught on camera with Noh picking up a Kree spaceship. But for as much as he knew that she could handle JJ easily, he didn't want her to go into the panel without support.

So the tall blonde that showed up to join her looked nothing like Kurt, but definitely had his sense of fashion. He looked downright dapper. "Are you ready to go?" he asked her, offering her his arm.

"If I have to go slumming, I suppose it's nice to have a good-looking chaperone," she said before she put on a swath of berry-red lipstick. "Ready when you are."

He smirked at her before he tipped his head to the side. "Are you sure about this? The man is … infuriating at the best of times."

She gave him a crooked smile and nodded her head. "Let me put it this way: the way he's setting things up, the next evil feral in his sights is our dear sweet pea in yellow. Who would be better in this position and not end up murdering him on the air?"

Kurt sighed. "That's true," he had to admit before he helped her into Kate's new car.

"If we leave it to him to explain anything about ferals, he'll be tying in Sabretooth too — you know I'm right," K added.

"And it would be downright rude of him to include the two of you in any discussion that includes that man," Kurt said with a little smirk.

"Well, let's say I'm prepared if it comes up," she promised.

Kurt nodded quietly. "I'm not surprised to hear it."

K watched him for a moment before she had to say something. "You know, you're sweet to try and help his arguement, by the way," K said before she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and reached up to remove any remnants of lipstick. "I know he's mad that I'm going ahead with this. But it will probably do more good than harm."

Kurt smiled a bit sheepishly. "He is my best friend. And you know if he gave you this argument, it would include more snarling."

She held up her hand with her thumb and forefinger just a millimeter apart. "About that much more. When he tried. Several times."

Kurt laughed and had to nod his agreement, then flipped on the radio so they could hear the lead-up to their day. JJ was supposed to make an on-air apology for not actually asking her to his show and then claiming she was hiding — and while the radio personalities didn't know that, it was fun to listen to them get into a tizzy when they didn't know what was coming.

By the time they arrived, the mid-morning segment was already in full swing, and Kate's contact Tina was grinning when she saw them both. "Oh good," she said, all but pushing them ahead of her. "He's just about to get to the apology." She was nearly cackling with glee. "You guys must have _some_ lawyer. He never does this. I've been working with him for years and I thought I'd seen it all — but you're totally making my whole day here."

"Glad to be of service," K replied quietly, sure to stay back out of sight where JJ couldn't see them until he'd already said what Matt Murdock had informed him he legally had to say on air to avoid a major lawsuit.

JJ was in a grumbly and slightly subdued mood. "We'll start out the morning today with a slight correction," he said through his moustache. "Recently, claims were made — by me — about a mutant terrorist known by the single letter K. I stand by those claims," he added with a bit more flash to his gaze. "But as to the previous statements that she has _avoided_ appearances… our office has not actually reached out to this feral mutant. While it's true that she hasn't appeared on any _other_ national forums either — we are obligated to issue an apology for our earlier statements that she was avoiding us." He straightened up a bit and cleared his throat. "That being said, to correct this oversight, we're officially inviting this woman here, on-air, to answer the myriad of questions we have. Which brings us to our next segment." He took a breath and shuffled his papers in front of him. "Our latest findings on this — this…" JJ trailed off as, in the middle of his transition, K simply walked onto the set and primly sat down opposite him.

"Please continue, don't let me slow you down," K said with a pleasant smile on her face, though her eyes were flashing.

JJ grimaced for a second before he cleared his throat. "Right. Our latest findings on this woman." He stopped and then leaned forward the slightest bit, and K could see him set his shoulders and his glare so he could properly take her on. "I see you took our invitation. Ms…? I don't know what to call you, seeing as you don't have a proper name."

"It hasn't slowed you down from calling me all kinds of things," K replied lightly. "But you can go with Mrs. Howlett if we're going to try for cordial."

"That's a recently acquired name, _Mrs. Howlett,_ " JJ pointed out. "And this segment is meant to delve more into your past — before you started to appear with the X-Men."

"Recent or not, that _is_ my name, even if you don't like it." K turned her head slightly so she was more squared up with him. "I wasn't aware that conventional pleasantries involved divulging a maiden name on meeting strange men."

"Your first name," JJ said. "Though if you want to share your maiden name too, I'm sure that would help my research team."

"I'd be happy to hand your research team anything that might help them along," K supplied. "But I'm afraid for the last thirty years or so, it's simply been K. If that's a problem, I suggest you take it up with your government officials. It was not by my choosing."

"And yet you kept the name," JJ said, glossing over her accusation. "Tell the truth — didn't you like the anonymity? The lack of any real accountability that comes with not existing?"

"I always tell the truth," she replied easily. " But ... who in the world said that I was hiding?"

"I didn't say you were hiding — just that you're anonymous," he shot back.

"As are 99% of the populus," she said with a nod. "Until incredibly recently, I was living a blue collar lifestyle that I'm sure you couldn't possibly relate to."

"But you're not like 99% of the populus," he pointed out. "And according to _law_ , that should put you under greater accountability."

"I _was_ part of that 99% _or less_ if you want to take into account how rare mutants are now. I can assure you that SHIELD — and every other government agency with a collection of letters — has all of my information on file," K replied calmly. "Your investigative reporters simply don't have the clearance."

"At the moment, all I'm asking for is a name," JJ said. "But you can hide behind that excuse if you want. It's ironic to see you hiding behind SHIELD's clearance when you spent the better part of several decades fighting them."

She smiled crookedly and relaxed a bit further into her chair. "I'm afraid that I can't remember large parts of that long history with the government — multiple altercations, I'm assuming? But for the sake of argument, if you tell me what the JJ stands for, then I'd be happy to break what I'm told are national security protocols and give you _my_ first name. Seems an odd thing for a grown man to request to be called by an abbreviation, then take issue with anyone else going by a letter."

"There's a difference between a nickname and a codename, as you well know," JJ said.

"'K' isn't a code name, but please, continue."

"My full name is public record for anyone to see — John Jonah Jameson. It's not hidden away or forgotten like yours." K smiled broadly for a moment with an incredibly warm expression.

"John, your mother took months to come up with that name. You should use it more often," K replied before she extended her hand to him. "Lilja."

JJ looked surprised outright and couldn't seem to come up with a reason not to take her hand, so he did. "How did you come up with 'K' from a name like Lilja?"

"Oh, _I_ didn't come up with that — as I've already told you several times, John. It wasn't a nickname or a codename," K said, shaking her head slightly. "It refers to a less-than-regulation mathematical abbreviation for one thousand. Bookkeeping. A number like the other nine hundred and ninety-nine before me."

JJ's eyebrows went straight up at that, and though it wasn't something anyone watching could have seen, K could hear someone in his ear almost desperately telling him to _steer clear_ of that conversation under national security concerns.

He cleared his throat, but he had a bit of a frown on his face like he was thinking it over. He could smell a story here. "Well we don't have time for a bookkeeping lesson in this segment; we have to move on to the invasion."

"That's too bad, since the number is irrevocably tied to my name," she replied with an easy smirk. "Officially. If you can find the right records with _clearance_."

JJ's frown deepened, and he cleared his throat. "If we have time, maybe we'll come back to that," he said, a bit taken off-guard when she tipped her head his way in agreement. "But in the meantime, let's talk about the moment you attacked an Accuser on the Avengers' Quinjet just prior to the invasion forces landing on Earth."

"I'd be glad to," she said, the smile not fading in the least. "Did you want to talk about how you're listening to the opinion of an enemy of the planet? Or maybe we could cover why anyone would listen to an alien army that showed up uninvited with invasion forces to begin with?"

"That's the only version of events we had to work with for some time—"

"Only if you entirely dismiss the statements from Hawkeye and _Captain America_." K said, looking entirely offended by the idea of it. "I know their statements were made public right after the incident was resolved."

He smirked at her. "Not in the least. In fact, they seemed to corroborate the version of events we had. Yours was the first act of violence."

She tipped her head to the side a bit. "If you go entirely by action, and ignore the invading fleet with weapons drawn, yes. I struck first. However, that wasn't the whole story that you read, was it John?" K shook her head a bit. "You're omitting the most important parts."

"Oh, you mean the part where you took captive the Accuser who wasn't in command — or the part where you proceeded to torture your prisoner for information when there's no record of what happened? That's not how war is conducted in _this_ country."

K frowned, scrunching up her nose at the very idea of it as she shook her head almost impatiently. When she spoke, it was with a tone one would use with a small child. "John, I'm more interested in the part where war had already been declared by the Kree, if you want to get into the technicalities. But if it's not on any record, isn't it a bit inflammatory to make wild accusations using words like 'torture'?"

"The implications are entirely clear in the record we do have. As are the records of his return to the Kree," he replied hotly. "And if we're discussing the matter of torture — why don't you tell us about the events leading up to the broadcast with Ronan? We could all see the state of your friends… but you seemed to be just fine."

"I wasn't aware you were going by Sinta's account over that of Steve Rogers. That's the Kree in question, by the way. Would you like to hear about how _we_ were tortured as well?" K asked with her head tipped to the side. "Or do you want to know more about my mutation? I'm not entirely clear on your immediate intentions, John."

"Why don't you tell me about that mutation of yours," JJ said. "Since it's not on any public record."

"That's a bit of an invasive question, and rather _rude_ to ask, but … it's pretty straightforward," she said easily. "And not news. I heal at an accelerated rate, very much like my husband," she replied with a shrug. "Which actually means they got away with a lot worse things with me than they did with my fellow captives. You could ask them if you don't want to believe me. They had to watch."

JJ shook his head. "We don't need details," he said.

"Funny, I thought that's what you were pushing for."

"That's all in the reports — at least, as much as our viewers could stomach. But why don't you explain how someone who, if I'm reading what limited records are available on you correctly, has a record of fighting far stronger adversaries got herself captured so early on and so easily?"

"It wasn't exactly early or easy," she said with a little smirk. "But while you were cowering under your desk, I was fighting to get the war-mongering aliens off the planet. Even someone who heals can only go on for so long with no rest, and I was a little worn down to begin with _before_ fighting for a week solid. Ladies issues."

"And fighting aliens," he said, seeming to agree with her before he fell into a smirk. "Except for one."

"Yes," she said brightly with a nod. "And I'm sure he'd be here to defend himself if you hadn't set public opinion on him so harshly." She leaned forward and rested her hand on his forearm. "I'd be happy to fill you in on the Kree hierarchy later if you'd like to get more _facts_ on what you're trying to talk about. I'd hate for you to have to make an on-air retraction."

"What hierarchy? I thought he was a traitor," JJ said as he pulled his arm back a bit.

She smiled a bit wider on seeing him pull back. "Yes. A traitor to a race of aliens that wanted to take over our planet. It turns out he sees the beauty here that most natives overlook. Constantly. He was the only Kree to fight against them. He went to war with his own people — to save ours." With that, she waved one hand in the air. "I fail to see how that makes him anything like what you're painting him out to be."

"That's a glowing review," he said with both eyebrows raised.

"It follows the facts, John," she replied. "Enemy combatants publicly decried him as a traitor during a time of war. How else could you see that?"

"I saw it as a question to be answered. What, exactly, was he betraying? They wouldn't have gone to such lengths if he hadn't been entrusted with something. What was it?"

"You clearly don't understand the Kree. But for the sake of argument, it was orders to take down our way of living and turn the earth into the new Kree Capitol. That was all in the statements that Hawkeye and Captain America released. Had that come to pass, you'd have been out of a job, John."

"So there's no truth to the rumors that he can, could, and did get turned against us?"

"He has pledged his life to the protection of the planet and preserving it as it naturally evolves on its own," K said with a ghost of a laugh. "However, there was a time where there were outside forces working against him — but that's not the case now and wasn't during the invasion, either." She shrugged one shoulder up to her ear. "But if I go into telling you much more about that, I'm sure your handler will start up in your ear again, begging you to move on. Your call, John."

He glared at her for a moment. "You know, you're right. I am getting the sign from our producers — that we don't have much time left," he said. "So why don't we move on to your future and your Kree allies? The invasion is over — but even weeks after all the Kree had left, Hawaiian officials found a ship hidden there, and it's taken you two months to give your statement. What have you been up to?"

She looked at him wide-eyed for a moment. "All of us have been doing what everyone else has been doing. Rebuilding. Had I known a statement to the _press_ was needed in addition to debriefing with SHIELD and a bunch of other alphabet soup organizations, I'd have provided it earlier — but my time was spent as I felt most appropriate, with family. Rebuilding our quiet, hopefully private lives." She smiled a little and turned it right back on him with what certainly came across as a warm, concerned look and tone. "How did you fare? Was there much damage that you needed to clean up from?"

"I don't make it a point to live with dangerous and powerful mutants that paint a target on my home—"

"So you sustained no damage from the invasion, then. I'm glad to hear it," she said with a kind smile before she let her tone switch to one that left no room for misinterpretation. "Yes. I live with other mutants. _Some_ of them are powerful. Fewer still could be considered dangerous. But those people that you are trying to paint maliciously? They _saved_ this planet. Try to remember that when you find your next woman to try and harass."

"Now who's flinging accusations?" he asked coldly. "Harassment is a rough accusation to throw at anyone, especially when I've just stated on-air that we never contacted you."

"I wasn't referring to myself. I know journalists are a fan of facts and figures — and the facts show that you have a history of trying to single out women and badger them on air," she replied. "I'd be happy to have the tapes pulled up of false accusations on a few of the people I live with, not to mention others that have had to deal with your flavor of reporting. Believe me, we have it all cued up and ready to go. If you'd like to deny it, I'm sure we can find someone to air it anyhow — on your competitors' station. Don't worry, John. You'll be credited properly."

"I'm sure the people you live with would love to give my competitors something like that, considering the crowd."

"We really don't have to," she said with a little shake of her head. "It's all a matter of public record, and you do it to yourself."

"Just like you draw down danger on yourself and everyone around you."

"Lucky for you we do," she replied, eyes flashing again. "Consider where you might be if we weren't fighting for your health and freedoms."

"And that, Lilja, is the subject of this afternoon's segment," he said with a wide smirk. "But that's all the time we have for you. How nice of you to finally make an appearance."

"How nice of you to finally ask, John. Your producers have our number," K replied. "I'll invite you to call next time you need a question answered rather than trying to up your ratings by bridging the gap with flagrant unsubstantiated rumors."

The cameras turned off as the producers and cameramen shuffled things around, and JJ glared at K as she got to her feet and pointedly looked down her nose at him for a moment before she sauntered off the set to a widely grinning Kurt, who offered her his arm and let his smile speak for him.

She tipped her chin up as she took his arm. "How did I look? Horrible and threatening? Evil? Killer of Alien scum? Danger to all of freedom and humanity?"

Kurt simply laughed at that and pulled her hand up to his to kiss it. "Oh, absolutely," he told her. "But I think it's time to get home to our little ones, oh dangerous killer." With that, and with a twinkle in his eye, he simply teleported them both out of the building.


	4. Reality Check

**Notes: Lol yeah we all love seeing JJJ meet his match. And whatchu talkin' 'bout, griezz? This child is a _Hawk-child_. There is no such thing as too much coffee for this family :P**

* * *

 **Chapter 4:"Reality Check"**

* * *

As soon as K stepped through the doors of the mansion after her interview with JJ, she was all but attacked by a cackling Spiderman.

"I got the whole thing on tape!" he told her as he spun her around in a hug. "And I'm going to play it on loop on rainy days. Brilliant!"

"That _was_ why I went after all," K said, watching him bounce in place after the hug. "To make sure you had something cheerful on your sad Spidey days."

"Well, your plan worked perfectly," Kate said as she too darted in for a hug, looking just as pleased as Spidey — though somehow not nearly as bouncy.

"Which part of it? Throwing him off to start, giving him something to sniff around at, or the part where I tried to get him off of Noh's ass?"

"All of it!" Peter declared with a wide grin.

"Though I bet your sparkly moon man appreciates your efforts to let him safely walk the streets," Kate added with a small smirk. "His undercover efforts include sunglasses and a trenchcoat. Poor thing."

"Honestly, that part was bugging me more than anything. I don't give a damn what they say about me ... but that kid …" She shook her head and let out a sigh.

"Don't think Johnny-boy was quite expecting the mama bear reaction," Peter said with a very loud and obvious snicker. "That was my favorite part, by the way. The John-ing."

"Oh, if I end up having to go back, that is the only thing I shall _ever_ call him," K promised. "I don't think he cares for his given name, but I'd like to remind him he's not a frat boy anymore."

"Even if he acts like it sometimes," Kate said, rolling her eyes. She adjusted little Krissy in her arms as Kurt switched off his inducer and came around behind her, wrapping his arms around both of the girls in his life. Krissy seemed to be happy as a clam with all the people and excitement around.

"Either he'll remember that he's not a teenager or you'll make him feel like he's a kid," Logan said as he stepped into the room with Elin snuggled into his shoulder. "Either way, he didn't like it." He gave K a tiny frown before leaning in for a more welcomed kiss. "So much for trying to go under the radar with Weapon X."

"You certainly gave Jameson plenty to hook his interest. I doubt he'll let that story go now," Kurt said, though he was glancing at Logan with a slightly raised eyebrow.

"If he's as nosy as he seems, it'll irritate the crap out of him," K said. "And I already heard from Kitty that Weapon X has been gearing up to make a move anyhow. She's got the intel from her program set up to alert her when there's increased activity from them — and they've been chattering since that stupid Ronan thing. Apparently. Might just throw a monkey wrench at them if they have to play a little defense too." She let out a little sigh and kissed Logan again. "They aren't very happy that another weapon they _lost_ is now in the public eye."

"That doesn't surprise me," Noh said. He had slipped into the room a little after Logan and had a warm, almost grateful smile on his face directed K's way. "After all, that broadcast went to nearly every corner of this planet. If they didn't want you to become a public figure, their plans were greatly upset." He slipped over to K and wrapped her in a quick and one-armed hug as he spoke.

"That's two highly expensive weapons wrecked for them," Logan said with a little smirk.

K looked up at Noh and gave him a bear hug — if nothing else because he looked like he wanted it. "Just because I said that stuff doesn't mean it's going to work. People as a unit are stupid, senseless animals that don't think for themselves."

"And mob mentality is difficult to fight, though easy to harness," Noh agreed, pulling her a bit tighter for a second before he finally released her. "Still ... thank you."

"Any time, my moon-dusted, sparkle-encrusted angel face," she replied with a little smile before she patted his arm. "You deserve better than how you've been treated."

"As do you," he told her warmly. "And as do the rest of our friends. I heard about what happened with some of our younger members recently. Jubilee wanted to go give the ruffians responsible a piece of her mind, but thankfully, she was unable to stand at that moment," he added with a small smirk. "Or we would all be in trouble with our local law enforcement."

"Well, seeing as she is _indisposed_ ," Logan said, "I guess K will have to keep pickin' up the slack for her. Though if it was Jubes on JJ, we'd probably have Scott tryin' to defuse the mob."

"Yeah, but we'd have even more material for Spidey here to autotune," Kate teased.

At that, Logan turned toward Noh. "How's the security lookin'? Backlash is gonna happen sooner rather'n later, pokin' that particular dragon."

"Our security measures are stronger than they were our last home," Noh assured him, then shrugged up one shoulder to his ear in a move that looked like he'd picked it up from Jubilee. "Since, for the moment, it hasn't been the best of ideas for me to be out and about, I've been tinkering with it and improving it to pass the time."

Logan nodded his head and passed Elin to K — both of whom looked happy to have each other. Elin gave her mother a snuggle and tried to chew on her cheekbone. "If you need anything, say the word," he said.

"I'll let you know. Though for now, just keep coming by to visit Jubilee. She appreciates it," Noh said with a little smile. "You seem to be the proper antidote when she is upset with me for, as I understand it, being the reason for her misery and inability to do those things she wants to do," he added in a low undertone.

"It's temporary," Logan promised.

"Yes, but in the meantime, thank you for helping," Noh said with a nod.

As the little group was entertained by Peter gleefully recounting the exact shades of red JJ had turned during the television spot, Scott arrived as well, looking for Logan and K for a Danger Room session with the younger team.

When he saw K, he gave her a kind of smirk. "So... Lilja, huh?"

"Hey. If there was a reasonable way to avoid it, I would have. But I figured he'd need it when he went digging for Weapon X, and the positives outweighed the negatives."

"That's true," he said, tipping his head to one side before he broke into an even wider smirk for a moment. "I kinda like the name, though, to be honest."

"Yeah? Well I'm glad to hear it. Now you have a good name to give your next daughter, don't you?" K replied with a sweet smile.

Scott rolled his eyes at her. "Right."

"Brown eyes, you are smart enough to have dug that up on your _own_ if you could find the files and go through them," K said, pointing her finger at him. "JJ isn't."

He held up both hands with a grin on his face. "Hey, I stopped prying into that after Fury brought your file and you joined the team."

"Really?" K asked with a little frown. "I wouldn't have."

"Well, at the time I was more concerned with keeping my team alive and out of reach of people like Hill and Sinister."

"If you want full disclosure, Logan can give you the rest of it later," K told him before glancing at Logan, who nodded once. "He's known since nearly the beginning."

"And I'll probably take you up on that," Scott said. " _After_ we put the junior X-Men to the test." He broke into an actual grin at that. "You two still ready to run the sim with those kids?"

"Yep." K handed Elin to Noh and gave them both a quick kiss on the cheek. "Thank you, in advance," K said.

"It's always fun to be with my little sister — no thanks required," he replied, already half melting over Elin as he bounced her a bit.

With that, the three of them headed out with a little wave, though Scott looked a little antsy. Maybe because this particular session was almost a punishment at this point for the junior team — a reality check in the very least. But also because he hoped it wasn't a scenario they'd have to actually run in the real world, even if that was looking more and more likely.

When they got to the Danger Room, the kids were a bit tired still — a few days of early-morning runs on top of their studies and training had at the very least made them quieter — but joking around like they usually did.

"I'm _still_ not calling you that," Brye was insisting, making a face at Rico. "It's stupid."

"Is not," Rico replied. "I'm not going by _Scorpion Boy_ my whole life."

"What aren't you calling him?" K asked as she and Logan stepped out into the center of the room, clearly waiting for them. "And why?"

"They have this fight every, oh, five minutes or so," Tommy said, looking bored as he waved his hand. "Codenames."

"I'm seventeen. I'm not going by Scorpion _Boy_ ," Rico insisted. "It's The Scorpion or bust."

"Careful," Hisako said over his shoulder. "You can end up with a lot worse than that."

"I still think it sounds like a supervillain name," Brye said with her arms crossed before she adjusted the strap of her quiver.

"Why don't you not worry about codenames after you figure out if you make the cut?" Logan suggested.

"I… thought we already did? I mean, we're on the team, right?" Rico asked, suddenly a lot less confident.

"Training team," Logan clarified with a wicked sort of smirk. "First step toward _earning_ a codename."

"Yeah, but half the team has names already," Brye pointed out.

"Then I guess the other half has some catching up to do," Logan replied. "Start by payin' attention to what Slim is gonna tell you to do next."

When the kids looked to Scott expectantly, he barely hid the smirk. "We're running a tag and bag," he said as the smirk stretched a bit wider. "Your targets are Logan and K, and you only meet your goal if you can capture and incapacitate _both_ of them." He gestured at the two ferals beside him. "They won't stab or cut you, but that doesn't mean they won't use their claws to defend themselves. Other than that, this is your sim. I want to see how you handle it as a team." He tipped his head at Logan as he turned to head up to the booth and didn't bother to stow the smirk.

"So, do they get a head start?" Sophia asked before Scott could clear the door.

Scott paused and looked Logan's way. "You want a head start?" he asked, and there was no mistaking the teasing tone.

"Nope," Logan said with a shake of his head. "I think we'll be fine."

Scott grinned and looked back toward Sophia. "No head start," he told her. "Just be ready to go as soon as the sim goes up." He paused, allowed the smirk to widen, and then added, "Oh, and if they rest a closed fist over your heart or anywhere on your head — you're out."

The kids all glanced at each other and fell into their best ready stances before the hard-light simulation started up, and the cityscape blinked into existence around them.

Tommy hardly waited long enough for the sim to start before he simply took off at a full run straight for Logan, clearly intending to show off and take down at least one of their targets on his own, though Logan held out an arm, and Tommy let out a very loud _oof_ as he was simply clotheslined and fell back — still grinning.

"Didn't work for your uncle either," Logan told him before he and K simply started to walk away from the group. "But you know. Keep trying."

"Sophia, do you think you could…?" Brye tipped her head at Logan and K, and the younger girl nodded and cleared her throat.

" _Come back and stay here with us,_ " Sophia sang out in a made-up melody, and even though it was directed at the ferals, even the rest of her teammates could feel a bit of the pull, since she didn't have it fully tuned and focused yet.

The two of them paused, turned, and frowned — almost matching their expressions to each other before K nodded once, and they both made a charge for the kids.

"Ooh boy," Rico muttered as he scurried over to meet their rush with Hisako, Tyler, and Brye, who was already shooting arrows. Cassie grew to her giant size as well and very simply moved to kick K across the street like a football, while Tommy hopped back to his feet and ran over to help.

K waited until the timing was just right and grabbed onto Cassie's leg — simply to climb her. K's intention, of course, was to tag her once she got close to her.

"Rico!" Cassie called out for help, and the six-legged boy very quickly started to scurry up Cassie's other side while Cassie tried in vain to swat at K and knock her back down. He couldn't quite fly, but his light wings gave him a significant boost to his jump as he tackled K and tried to get his stinger between them.

But, disturbing Rico entirely, K actually giggled at that and tagged him with a fist over the heart and a whispered out 'snikt'.

Rico let out a very loud "hey!" and a dramatic groan as Scott called him 'out'. He settled into a very disappointed, arms-crossed slouch as he headed to the sidelines.

In the meantime, Hisako had created a large, reddish armor around herself that was almost matching Cassie's size. Cassie high-fived the armor before they both started after K, while Tommy tried for a rematch with Logan, dodging out of the way of Brye's arrows.

" _Just stop fighting!_ " Sophia sang out, half hiding behind Tyler, though it wasn't exactly helping her case when that had _everyone_ slowing to a stop. "Umm." She glanced around at her team. " _Only stop fighting if you're older than… thirty."_

At that, her teammates started up again. Tommy shook his head hard and zipped over to grab Logan by the arms — and Tammy flung out a hand to pick K up out of the air telekinetically.

"I've got this one!" Tammy announced as she picked K up higher to keep her clear of any buildings that she could grab onto — and Tyler stepped in front of her in a protective stance so that she'd be able to keep it up.

Logan looked up and took a more solid stance as Tommy tried to pull him back a few paces. "Just a sec, darlin'," Logan called out before he threw Tommy over his head toward Tyler — which started a chain reaction of kids crashing into each other that ended with Logan rushing to catch K as she fell.

But Hisako got there first and reached out with one red-armored hand to catch K in mid-air and close her fist around her. "Tammy, get Logan," Hisako called out as K worked to free herself.

Tammy had to pick herself out of the tangle of arms and legs that was her, Tommy, and Tyler — but when she looked up, Logan was rushing right for them, snarls echoing over the street with a look that had her eyes widening. She reached out a hand but couldn't quite get a lock on him to lift him up before Tyler picked her up and got her out of the way of the rampaging Wolverine.

"No worries — I got this," Tommy said as he put both hands out and simply sent out a wave of energy meant not only to knock Logan over but to demolish the ground he was standing on to keep him from getting back up again. It worked — though it had both Cassie and Hisako stumbling — and Tommy rushed forward to take advantage of Logan being knocked prone with a wide and confident grin that fell when Logan's fist came up under his chin, and Scott shouted 'out'.

While Tommy headed over to join Rico with much grumbling and muttering, Tammy had gotten a little better hold of herself. Tyler set her down, and she once more flung out a hand to pick Logan up this time. She had broken into a wide grin and was about to turn to Tyler to say something about their win when Hisako let out a small cry. "K's slipped out," Hisako called to the others, and Brye rolled her eyes.

"Of course she did," Brye said, glancing around the simulated city for any critters that might be useful in spotting a sneaky feral, sending a few birds out to look.

K had slipped down an alley and was very stealthily making her way around to slip up behind Tyler and Tammy. It was pretty clear that neither of them knew she was there yet, even with Tyler's enhanced senses, and although it would have made more sense to take out Tammy … it was too much to pass up. She licked her lips and let out the lowest growl she could manage before she darted forward and tagged Tyler.

Tyler let out a cry of surprise and then looked upset with himself that he'd let her sneak up on him — while Tammy was much louder about her surprise as she very nearly let Logan fall the full 30 feet she'd been holding him up in the air before she caught him again, all while half scrambling backward.

" _Don't tag Tammy,_ " Sophia sang out, rushing over to her friend.

K glared toward Sophia a moment, mid-stalk, and instead of tagging her, simply punched Tammy in the shoulder _hard._

Tammy went sprawling as Brye directed a flock of pigeons to get in K's face and harass her so that Cassie could reach out a hand this time to catch Logan, letting out a bit of an _oof_ as she wrapped one giant hand around him and Sophia sang half-pleadingly, " _Don't fight Cassie! Stay in her hand!_ "

Logan didn't wait for Cassie to get him too far up in the air, though, before he worked one arm loose and used a fist to apply pressure at a spot halfway between her forefinger and thumb, and a few moments later, she simply couldn't keep her grip on him.

"Hisako — catch him!" Cassie cried out, trying to work her hand back into something more useful with a frown as the other giant girl — or giant armor — rushed over. But she didn't quite get there in time to keep Logan from hitting the ground.

With one of their quarry now loose, Brye was doing her best to keep K contained, at least, pulling in pigeons and rats and bugs and stray cats and whatever she could to keep K occupied and in the same spot while the other girls worked to try and stop Logan.

"That is just so nasty," K called her way.

"Didn't think you were squeamish!" Brye called back with a smirk.

"Well, I'm not," she replied, as inspiration struck her and she started walking toward Brye with the dirty menagerie around her. "Are you?"

"Not when it comes to animals," Brye replied, letting a few spiders crawl onto her hand to illustrate the point.

"Good to know," K replied before she rushed the last few yards to her to tackle and tag her, despite Brye's best attempts to get out of the way and even sink a few arrows into K in an attempt to slow her down.

The animals started to back off of K — though a few cats got in a couple more snarls before they left — to which K responded with a hiss of her own before she slipped down another alleyway to circle around and find a way to get to Cassie or Hisako.

The two girls were doing their best to pin Logan down, with Cassie one-handedly taking light poles or anything else she could grab to try to hit or pin him, while Hisako seemed to be doing her best to try and step on him to keep him down — all while Sophia desperately tried to come up with more specific directions that wouldn't affect the other two. " _Don't fight us_ ," didn't work, and neither did, " _Come quietly_ " or " _Just lie down and stay there please_."

"Has anyone seen K?" Tammy called out to the other three girls as she picked herself up to float somewhere less dangerous than on the ground.

Sophia picked her head up at that and quickly frowned. " _K, come out and don't touch anybody,_ " she called out.

They all seemed a bit on edge until Sophia let out a little scream when K rushed her and wrapped a curtain around her that she'd taken from a building — then tagged her out.

"Oh ... there you are," Tammy said with a bit of a shaky smile in what was probably an attempt at mid-battle snark. She threw out a hand to attempt to pick K up again, but K was faster than she was and simply shimmied up a light post to throw herself at Tammy and tag her out, too.

K helped Tammy to her feet before she looked up between the two very tall girls and nodded to herself. The fight to stop Logan had resulted in quite a bit of downed and dead electrical wires, and she let out a shrill whistle to catch Logan's attention. He didn't even look her way before he darted off into a narrow alley where the two girls couldn't follow and slipped out of their sight. By the time they looked toward where K was, she was gone too, leaving the girls searching for the two of them.

"This ... is not going well," Cassie said with a small frown Hisako's way.

"If we can just _find_ them, I'm sure we can pin them," Hisako said, though she didn't quite sound like she believed it herself.

There was a long, almost whirring sound that neither of them could place until they looked down to see the two ferals running around them both with long, cables — clearly wrapping them up. Logan had pulled one end around a cornerstone of a nearby brownstone and pulled hard, leaving the two of them a bit too tangled to do more than just stand there as K climbed her way up a telephone pole — intending to leap the distance and tag Cassie out.

But Cassie very quickly shrank down from her giant size - and kept right on shrinking until she was small enough to slip between the cables, though Hisako was still pretty tangled up. She pulled down her armor for just a moment to try and untangle herself, but that only got her tagged when Logan darted forward faster than she could pull it back up.

Which left Cassie, who had shrunk down to bug-size, to face the two ferals. She tried to size up the situation and come up with _some_ way to take them both down and finally decided that her best bet was to run toward the nearest opponent — Logan — and just… fall on him.

She took a deep breath and waited until she was right beside Logan to very suddenly start up her growth spurt until she was properly huge and then more or less fall to her knees on top of him to pin him in place.

It was a pretty short-lived victory, though, as predictably, K made her way up Cassie's back to rest her fist at the base of her skull. "Nice work," K told her. "For the first time out."

"It's not actually my first time out," Cassie pointed out as she offered her hand to K to jump on so she could lower her to the ground before she shrank back down.

"Against us, it is," K replied, then walked over to pull Logan to his feet and steal a somewhat involved kiss, while Scott called out for the others to gather up.

Most of the team was grumbling about their poor performance and complaining about having been tagged out as Scott came down to join them, but Tyler had a pensieve sort of look on his face.

"That really wasn't too bad for your first time on this exercise," Scott said to the kids.

K and Logan moved to stand near Scott, arm in arm as they watched the kids' reactions. The boys in particular looked a bit annoyed at having been tagged out so quickly, though to be fair, they were the ones who had to do more hand-to-hand and couldn't get as much distance as the girls.

"Tyler, you gotta get more aggressive when the time comes up," Logan said with a shake of his head. "I know you were trying to watch out for them — but freakin' hit something now and again."

"Less defense, more offense?" Tyler asked.

"Best defense is a good offense," Logan replied. "Keep it up and I'll turn you over to her for hand-to-hand." He tipped his head K's way, and she smirked up at him. "You'll either learn to fight or get your ass handed to you until she's tired of beating on you."

"I'll try and step it up more, then," Tyler said quickly, and K smirked hard at that.

"And Rico — you've got to get less aggressive. Think before you act," Scott said, turning to the young man, whose wings fluttered a bit at being addressed. "I know you're strong and fast, but there's always someone out there who's faster and stronger."

"More specific on your vocal commands, Siren," K said as she turned toward Sophia. "Unless … you prefer the little mermaid?"

Sophia's eyes widened, and her scales turned the slightest pink. "Oh, no .. no, I like Siren much better," she said quietly as Tammy snagged a water bottle out of the air to hand to the younger girl to keep her hydrated.

"Ooh, yeah, it totally suits you, Soph," Brye agreed with a crooked grin. "Siren. I like it."

"And you need to focus more on hand-to-hand," Scott said, tipping his head at Brye. "You're good with that bow, but you can't rely on always having distance and on letting your weapon and your animal friends do the fighting for you."

Brye lost the crooked smirk for a second but nodded her agreement as Scott turned his gaze to Hisako. "Same goes for you — as soon as you let your powers down, you were instantly vulnerable. You need to know how to fight as well with your armor as without it."

Hisako nodded and looked very determined to get it right the next time.

Scott turned to Tommy next. "And Tommy, I know you've been a civilian and on your own for a while now, but you need to be smarter with your powers. Be aware of what your teammates are doing — you nearly knocked Hisako and Cassie down back there." Scott crossed his arms. "You can't do it on your own."

Tommy let out a huff and rolled his eyes, which got Cassie to smack him in the back of the head. "Fine," he muttered. "I'll play with the kiddies."

"Aww, you love us anyway," Sophia teased, which got a bit of a sideways smirk from Tommy as the much shorter and smaller girl lightly punched him in the arm.

"Tammy, you did well out there — you had them both incapacitated a few times, but you lost focus, and you didn't keep an eye on your surroundings," Scott said, turning to the last member of the team. "Don't let your fear get in the way of a good plan."

As the kids seemed a bit quieter after their pretty sound loss, Tyler spoke up with a small frown. "This… was more than just an exercise, wasn't it?"

"It's a possible scenario," Scott replied. "And one that I think would be best run against the actual people rather than sims of them."

"It's more than just a possibility, isn't it?" Tyler asked carefully. "You wouldn't have us running this right now, with things the way they are, if it wasn't."

"The rest of the team more or less knows how to stop us," Logan replied.

"You might need to know how to stop them — in case everything goes south," Scott finished.

The kids on the team all looked much more nervous at that and exchanged a few glances. "Yeah, but you kicked our butts," Rico muttered quietly. "And this stuff's happening right now with all the crap on the news."

"Listen, this … is not anything that you should have to worry about any time soon," Scott said in a calming tone. "This is one of those worst-case scenarios that you need to be prepared for if you want to be a part of the team. It's also something that the main team has done for years. Eventually, we will go through all of the team's members. For now, this is what we're starting with."

With that, the junior team dispersed to shower off, though they were all a bit quieter as they considered the exercise. Tammy was one of the first to get cleaned up, but she waited until she saw Tyler and then rushed to catch up with him, chewing on her bottom lip before she reached out to touch his shoulder to get his attention.

Tyler turned her way and then broke into a smile that he probably didn't realize was as wide as it was when he saw her. "Hey, Tammy."

She couldn't help but match his smile, even with everything weighing on her mind. "Hey, Tyler," she replied, though she had her arms wrapped around herself as she looked up at him. "I wanted to ask you… I mean, you were the one who brought it up…"

"You want to know if I think we'll really have to fight them," Tyler surmised.

Tammy nodded. "We can't win if we do," she said softly.

Tyler stopped to turn toward her and tried to chose his words carefully as he thought it over. Finally, he nodded to himself and took a deep breath. "Well, we know more of what we're doing wrong, so that'll help," he said. "And that was just our team. You're forgetting the rest of the X-Men. We'd have some firepower on our side if it happened."

Tammy nodded, though she didn't look to comforted by the thought.

Tyler blew out another breath and decided to take a different approach. "Hey, let's not worry about it right now, huh?" he said. "Why don't we grab a bite to eat?"

Tammy raised an eyebrow at him, and then her expression turned more troublemaking. "If that's what you need as an excuse to ask me on a date…"

Tyler blinked at her for a second before he burst into a laugh and offered her his arm. "Nah. I don't need an excuse."

"Oh good," Tammy said, taking his arm and grinning at him — and feeling a lot better about the whole thing.


	5. Dr McCoy Goes to Washington

**Notes from robbie: Okay. So. Griezz, we've said before we don't take requests. But the thing here is that this is a canonical exercise that the X-Men run often. (I can't say it enough: go read the Nightcrawler 2014 run. There's a beautiful sequence of Kurt and Logan training and Logan helping Kurt get good enough to at least try to take on the whole team single-handed.) Even the senior squad practices fighting each other, and even the senior squad has trouble with it. The junior squad? Not gonna stop the trained weapons who can take down the team, and who can destroy entire armies.**

 **The other part of this is that it was not meant to be a confidence booster for the junior squad in the first place. If anything, it was the opposite: a sort of reality check after they got themselves in trouble getting too confident and going out in public in their uniforms and needing to get bailed out by Anton. (The practices don't exist in a vacuum: you need to take into account the climate not only in a broader political context but in terms of how much the junior squad is already in trouble.)**

 **Yes, the team is going to have other practices where they will do well. And they certainly have reason to be confident in themselves after making a junior squad that hasn't been in practice for a little while. But right now, the focus is on getting the junior squad to pull their heads out and FOCUS. As you're going to see in this chapter, the political landscape is getting bad, and these kids don't have the time to have their hands held when there are people threatening their very way of life.**

 **Notes from CC: And even if they get their asses kicked they will feel better about themselves because they went around with Wolverine AND K and lived through it. You can BET that Scott has measures in place to stop the ferals if it comes down to it. Many. So while your recommendation is noted(with a heavy eye roll of quit trying to tell us how to run our story), it feels like a request to go easy from the junior team.**

* * *

 **Chapter 5: "Dr. McCoy Goes to Washington"**

* * *

Everyone in the mansion knew that Scott's nieces had come to visit because of the loud squealing echoing through the halls that weekend. Both girls _loved_ their little cousins, and the twins could be seen chasing Leslie Ann and Mary Beth into classrooms and around the house all day long before they finally came in for a bite to eat.

Trying to live up to being the oldest in the group, Leslie Ann was making sandwiches for everybody as Mary Beth got out the juice boxes that Scott kept stocked in the pantry just for them, while the twins had noticed Tyler studying in the corner — he'd been sitting there working on some biology homework since just after breakfast — and climbed up into his lap to keep him company. Charlie even pretended to read to him, pointing at the pages and making up nonsense.

When Logan walked in from having been out in the garage wrenching on his bike, he had to step around the kids on his way to wash up, his hands half covered in dirty oil. He glanced over at Leslie Ann where she was working away and looking a bit down. "You alright, kiddo?" he asked as he scrubbed the oil off under the steaming hot water. "You look like someone kicked your dog."

"Yeah, I'm okay," she replied a bit sullenly.

He frowned and finished cleaning himself up before he leaned against the counter and watched her for a moment. "Where'd you get the shiner, sweet-pea?"

She self-consciously rubbed the back of her hand close to her black eye and scuffed the ground with her foot. "Couple boys at school were telling lies, and they didn't like it when I told them to shut up," she explained.

Which was the perfect reason for Mary Beth to slide up to helpfully proclaim, "Leslie Ann got in a fight!"

"What were they sayin', darlin'?" Logan asked as he sat down nearby, his chin in the palm of his hand and his focus fully on her.

"Stupid stuff," Leslie Ann said, still frowning. "They were saying stupid stuff about the kids at the school, and about the X-Men, and I _tried_ to tell them they were wrong, but they just laughed at me, so I ... I punched one of them."

He extended his hand, palm up. "Let me see your hand," he said. "The one you hit him with."

Leslie Ann very quietly shuffled over and let him see, all the while muttering, "He deserved it."

Logan rubbed his thumb across her knuckles, where there was all kinds of bruising, nodding his head to himself. "You hit him a couple'a times, didn't you?" he asked, smirking slightly as she nodded. "Sounds to me like he asked for it."

"That's what I told Dad, but he said I still shouldn't hit people even if they're stupid," Leslie Ann muttered.

Logan had to smirk a little wider at that before he pulled her over and gave her a hug. "If you spent your time hittin' stupid people you'd be worn down by lunchtime."

"Yeah, but - they're just so…" Leslie Ann fell into a glare and harrumphed, her arms over her chest.

"You did alright," he said with a little laugh. "He hit you, and that's probably why your dad wasn't madder. Did you hit him first or the other way around?"

She scuffed the ground with her shoe again. "I hit him first," she admitted before she very quickly added, "But he shoved me!"

"Then you didn't hit him hard enough." He said with a little sparkle in his eyes. "Any boy that hits a girl should have his teeth knocked down his throat."

Leslie Ann nodded her agreement very fervently. "I only lost 'cause his friend pulled me off of him," she admitted with a bit of relish in her tone.

"Sounds like his buddy had it comin' too," Logan said. "But …" He took a breath. "You shouldn't get into fights at school. Even if they're dead wrong about us. Dumb as it can be sometimes, everyone's got a right to their opinion, and they got a right to show how stupid they are."

"I know," Leslie Ann grumbled. "He just made me mad. He was saying mean things about Miss K."

He narrowed his eyes for just a moment. "Do you think they'd say it to her face?" He smirked her way, knowing the answer was a big, fat, no.

"No way," Leslie Ann said, starting to smile. "Miss K would kick their butts."

"No, she wouldn't," Logan corrected her before he added a little growl to his voice. "She'd just growl at 'em and watch 'em scatter."

Leslie Ann giggled at that and nodded. "That's true. Mom says boys like that are chicken and they only pick on people if they know they can win. Like how that boy had his friend help against me."

"Or if they think they'll never hear about it," Logan agreed.

"Yeah, but somebody's still gotta tell them they're stupid," Leslie Ann insisted. "They were trying to tell some of the younger kids all that stuff, and it's not _true_."

"You know, K doesn't go beating up everyone that says bad things about her," Logan pointed out. "She just lets everyone see how stupid they are."

"Yeah, well, I'm only ten," Leslie Ann grumbled.

"Yeah, but you're smart," Logan said reassuringly.

"But they don't _listen_ ," Leslie Ann complained.

"They never do," he agreed. "They gotta figure it out on their own."

"That'll take forever," Leslie Ann said with a smirk. "Boys always take longer to figure stuff out."

"They really, really do," he agreed seriously. "How 'bout I show you how to knock 'em down without gettin' too close to 'em if they try it again?"

Leslie Ann's eyes lit up. "Would you please?" she asked.

"Sure," he said with a little smile. "I'll talk to your dad later. Sounds to me like you need some self-defense lessons if boys think they can hit you and get away with it."

"Well, Dad showed me how to punch people and some stuff," Leslie Ann admitted.

"Your dad's a big guy," Logan said. "I don't think he knows how to fight people bigger'n him."

"Nobody's bigger than him," she replied seriously.

"And everybody's bigger'n me," he teased. "I can show you how to beat up the bigger kids."

"That would be great, because these guys're eleven, and they think they're cool just because they're a few months older than me," Leslie Ann told him.

He offered her his hand as he led her off, letting her continue to tell him all about these rotten boys that were making her miserable.

* * *

The news had been steadily growing more and more dark, and Logan had decided he needed to get out and get some fresh air. The fact that his and K's anniversary was right around the corner was a happy coincidence, so no one was particularly surprised when the three of them simply disappeared a few days before the actual date. Kurt knew what Logan had in mind, and had made a point to get to Logan's cabin first — just to set out a little something for the two of them to enjoy while they hid away in the Canadian woods for the week, well away from the news and the negativity.

"Brimstone," K said as she stepped into the front door holding Elin in her arms. "Your best Elf was here."

Logan was right behind her and smirked to himself when he caught the scent too. "He had to let us know he knew what we're up to," Logan said as he found the little note on the table and a box — apparently Annie had insisted that they had something sweet for their private celebration, and clearly Kate had helped to decorate the little cake, since it was half purple.

"She is consistent," K said with a decisive nod before she let Elin down to explore a bit.

The weather was holding out, and the leaves changing color had been a bit late, so when K finally stepped up to peek out the window that overlooked the lake and the mountains, she had to smile a bit. The landscape was gorgeous, the air was fresh, and the company couldn't have been better.

"I'm pretty sure that's a smile," Logan said as he stepped up behind her and wrapped an arm around her waist. "And you know where we are this time." She had to smirk at that before she turned to face him and give him a long kiss.

"Well. As far as Canadians go, I think I got the best one."

* * *

Although the big annual Halloween bash was fast approaching, the mood in the mansion wasn't quite as festive as it had been in the years before, just because the climate was starting to get to them. Some of the kids with more visible mutations had gotten kicked out of a shop trying to buy costumes for Halloween, and the news was still playing tirades about the dangers of mutants and ferals in particular. Some new, recently-elected freshman senator was trying to drum up support for a new anti-mutant law, too — and he was proposing everything the older X-Men had already heard, though the law hadn't been written up and was still just a crazy proposal, for the moment.

Still, it was enough that Hank and Storm had flown out to Washington, and somehow, it didn't quite feel like Halloween without Storm's mood lighting.

Noh wasn't DJing the party, either, because Jubilee was having one of the worst days ever with her pregnancy. She was completely miserable, grumpy, and flat-out tired, and Noh was simply doing everything he could to try and make her feel better.

When nothing he was doing seemed to be working, though, he finally gave up. "I'm going to get Wolverine," he told her, gently, and she slid further into the blankets and pillows. "You always seem to be more cheerful after a visit from him." With that, he dashed off to go find Logan, who was, as usual around Halloween, getting Bobby to chill some beer for him before he headed off away from the hubbub of the party.

Kate and Kurt were there, too, dressed to the nines as Captain Hook, Peter Pan, and Tinker Bell — Kate was Peter Pan — and Noh had to pause and grin over Krissy, who was playing with the edges of her costume like she wasn't sure what to do with this thing, particularly the wings, which she kept fighting. The bamfs were also dressed as either lost boys or pirates, though one had a nightshirt on and a top hat and seemed to be trying to help Krissy _not_ destroy her costume, even if that was a losing battle.

But then he went past them to Logan and in a quiet tone asked, "Would you speak to my Jubilee? She's having a particularly hard time today. Maybe she is missing the party?"

"I'll check on her," Logan promised before he asked Bobby to take the beer to the game room. where he and K were going to have a two-man pool tournament. The stakes had not been made public — but the competition was stiff already, and it hadn't even started yet.

"Thank you," Noh breathed out as he went with Logan back to their room.

Logan stepped into Jubilee's room with a little smile that faltered when he got closer to her. "You feelin' okay, darlin'?" Logan asked, looking more concerned the closer he got to her.

"Oh yeah. Why wouldn't I be? We're all _fine_ ," she grumbled.

Logan made his way over and sat down with her, not even asking before he put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her into a one armed hug. "Noh, you better tell Kurt he's got to yank Henry from DC. This thing is happenin'."

Noh's eyes widened as he looked between Logan and Jubilee before he nodded very quickly. "Right," he said, simply dashing off once more to go find the Captain Hook in the kitchen and inform him of what was going on.

Kurt looked surprised to see Noh skidding to a stop in front of him, and he smiled at the younger man. "How is Jubilee today?" he asked, tipping his hat the slightest toward Noh.

"She — she is having our child," Noh gasped out, so wide-eyed that Kurt dropped the teasing smile instantly and put out a hand to steady the Kree fighter.

"Right now?" Kurt asked.

"She's not in labor at the moment, I don't think," Noh said, though he looked far more worried and concerned than either Kate or Kurt had ever seen him. "But Logan sent me for you — he said to send for Hank from Washington, D.C."

Kurt's eyebrows shot up, and he nodded his quick understanding before he simply teleported off to go find the good doctor.

* * *

Hank, meanwhile, was on Capitol Hill with Storm as the two of them attempted the impossible: reasoning with politicians. In particular, they had managed to track down the man responsible for the latest ridiculous push.

"This debate has been raging since before you were born, young man — what you're saying isn't anything new," Hank told the firebrand Senator Robbins, the freshman senator pushing for stricter anti-mutant legislation.

Robbins glared at Hank openly, though his aide had an even worse sneer on his face. "But every time anybody tries to do anything about _you people_ , the pantywaists around here get in the way of _real_ progress."

"Real progress?" Storm repeated, one eyebrow arched high. "We're all registered and following all the laws that the government has put forward. What more could you ask of us?"

Robbins sneered at her for a moment. "If you ask me, all you freaks should be shipped out of here — save this country for _humanity_."

Storm's eyes flashed for a moment, but she set her shoulders back and stood taller as Hank shook his head at the senator. "Others have called for the same small-minded outlook in the past, yet when we tried to do exactly that, all those people could think of was how to kill us. I think you'll find that we can coexist peacefully in the same space."

"Nothing wrong with national defense when a country of freaks is so close to yours," Robbins said with a glare. "And I'm getting real tired of that co-existence crap. If you're so easy to live with, how come we keep having this debate? You'd think if you were all such angels we wouldn't _have_ this problem!"

"Typical response from someone so close minded," Storm said. "Attack a peaceful nation because of your _fears._ "

"Any rational person is scared of what can destroy him," Robbins said. That's the point of defense."

"And yet, most rational people attempt to educate themselves if the fear is that great, Senator," Hank said calmly. "You haven't even attempted to learn from other's mistakes. Your assumptions are wrong. Mutants are not dangerous. Mankind believed for ages that the world was flat, but that did not make our planet so."

Robbins waved a hand at Hank. "All I'm saying is this problem keeps cropping up, and it means the _American people_ are left holding the bag while you creeps have your wars and fight among yourselves!"

Hank's eyebrows rose a bit at that. "What you must understand, Senator, is that you are deflecting far too many worldwide issues onto a tiny percentage of the population. If mutants were as dangerous as you seem to insist on, we would not be having this _polite_ conversation."

"Just because there's a few good ones doesn't mean a _thing_."

"I believe you have it backwards," Hank replied. "Just because there are a few bad ones does not mean that all of us should suffer."

"You're asking us to risk our safety and security on the assurance that there's only a _few_ bad ones?" Robbins asked incredulously.

"When the larger percentage of them have risked their lives and safety to ensure that security? Yes. Let SHIELD deal with those that break the laws wantonly. Particularly since policies that you would support have only ended in genocide."

"These so-called heroes are the same people who break the laws — you fight with each other all the time, and we get caught in the middle!"

"If you're referring to the X-Men, the only time that we have ever fought was to keep those that think very much like you from killing civilians - and _most of those we saved are humans at that._ "

"So you're denying the documented fact that you X-Men don't just fight the ones you call dangerous — you fight _each other_?" Robbins all but sneered his way.

"I'm not sure that even I can follow that train of thought, Senator."

"Then let me spell it out for you," Robbins said with a maniacal grin. "You X-Men want us to believe that you're _safe_ , even if you've got some of the most _dangerous_ mutants in your ranks — but you fight each other, and tear up our streets, our homes, our safety in the process!"

"The X-Men do not fight each other," Henry said, though it was clear from his tone that his patience was wearing paper thin. "We fight those that would cause destruction — and the ranks of their 'organizations' are depleting, thankfully. But perhaps you might enlighten me as to who of the X-Men you find so detestable?"

Robbins sneered. "In _my_ opinion, you're all freaks," he said. "But if you want names, why don't you start with those dangerous ferals of yours? Or how about your chosen _leader_ — wasn't he here in Washington trying to topple our safety not too long ago? You think we forgot about _that_?"

"If you are referring to the Phoenix incident, then you fail to grasp not only the finer points of that particular debacle but the larger, easy-to-read ones that contain small words."

"Oh, I haven't even worked up to the Phoenix incident yet," the senator said with a wicked smile. "You say you X-Men don't fight, but I have it on good authority there was a _split_ in your ranks. And that split left one segment of your ranks advocating all the things you said you're against. There's only one team now, but considering who's leading it…" Robbins let the comment trail off and looked smug.

"Ah, so that's the path you've chosen to take," Hank said with a disappointed tone. "I should hope that you've made no mistakes in your past. As the old adage goes — to err is human — which would prove we all are in this together."

"When _normal_ people make mistakes, it doesn't result in the kind of catastrophe as when _you_ freaks do it."

"No? The kind of mistake that you are trying to advocate would result in further genocide. Yet you still think it's the right path to take. I can't say that I've heard any mutants advocating the same for non-mutants."

"So that's your argument? You're crying foul and throwing around accusations of war crimes to stand in the way of security?" Robbins sneered at him again.

"I am citing hard facts. Numbers that you simply don't care to look at, but they are there, and they are fact. I don't see how going further than you already have shows anything but your full support to go goose stepping into that direction."

"I'm calling for you freaks to _leave_. Or at the very least to be held accountable," Robbins said. "You're the one bringing up doomsday scare tactics here."

"Doctor," Storm said as she laid her hand on Hank's arm. "We'll make no progress here. Perhaps you'd do better to send him further discussions with a box of crayons and lots of pictures."

Hank frowned hard but allowed Storm to pull his arm a bit as he very slightly tipped his head at Robbins in a short goodbye, only barely keeping in check the growl that wanted to slip out.

They'd made it to the street before he let out a sigh and shook his head. "I'm afraid there's no reasoning with that cro-magnon," he said, obviously annoyed.

"Yes, well, you know how some of them are," Storm agreed. "We can't change their minds, and they refuse to listen to reason."

Hank let out another long sigh and rubbed the bridge of his nose — before a familiar _bamf_ echoed in the street and both Storm and Hank found themselves with Kurt, decked out in his pirate gear, looking like he couldn't decide whether to grin or look worried. "Henry, I'm sorry to cut your trip short, but it seems Jubilee is in need of your services," Kurt said quickly.

"I wish I could say you interrupted something encouraging," Hank replied before he took Ororo's hand in his. "I hate to leave you to deal with finding your own way home," he told her with a little smile that she returned.

"I'm sorry to hear there's nothing encouraging here," Kurt said. "But perhaps we'll find something a little more joyful back home," he added with a twinkle to his eyes before he teleported all of them back to the mansion.

They reappeared outside Jubilee's room, where Logan was still half-snuggled in with her, and Noh was tenderly holding her hand and looking concerned until Hank showed up with a kind smile.

"Oh my," Hank said when he saw the three of them, and he quickly slipped over to look Jubilee over before he looked to Kurt. "If you would—"

"Of course," Kurt said quickly, and a few moments — and a few bamfs —later, the little group was tucked into Hank's medical wing, and he quickly set about making preparations.

"You want me to stay, Jubes?" Logan asked, when Jubilee seemed to have attached herself to both him and Noh — grabbing one of them by the hand with each of hers and nodding fiercely.

Kurt and Storm stepped back to give them some privacy, slipping off to the other side of the medical wing. Kate and Krissy came down as well — they'd decided to investigate for themselves when Kurt had been gone for so long.

"Oh, those are darling costumes," Storm said with a wide smile when she saw Kate in her Peter Pan gear holding her little purple Tinker Bell.

"Made all the more darling by the women wearing them," Kurt agreed with a proud smile.

Kate slipped over to him and allowed him to wrap her up in a hug that ended in a gentle kiss pressed to her forehead. "Careful, Storm. This one's a charmer. If we're not careful, he's going to sweep some unsuspecting girl off her feet one of these days," Kate laughed, reaching up to adjust the brim of Kurt's hat a bit lower over his eyes before she kissed him properly.

"I think it may be too late for that," Storm said with a little laugh, shaking her head at the two of them before she glanced over at the curtain Hank had drawn between them and Jubilee. "When did this happen?" she asked Kurt.

"This evening," Kurt said. "Noh came to get me, and I went straight to you — so I'm not sure the precise timing, but it's fairly recent."

Storm nodded and glanced once more toward the curtain, where they could hear Jubilee loudly informing Noh just what she thought about his "stupid sped-up DNA."

"How was Washington?" Kate asked as the little group settled into a corner and Krissy fussed until Kate handed her over to Storm — the little elfling wasn't happy unless she'd been allowed to say hello to everyone in the room, really.

"Not very productive, I'm afraid," Storm said, and there was a distinct flash of anger in her gaze at the thought of it, which she quickly hid as she looked down at Krissy, who had wrapped her little tail around Storm's arm. "When did she start doing this?"

"Yesterday morning," Kate said with a laugh. "She just latches right on."

"It's an easy indicator for us to know when she wants to go to someone else — she lets go if she wants to be put down or passed on to a new playmate," Kurt said with a little chuckle as one of the pirate bamfs peered over Storm's shoulder to make sure the little one was still okay.

"I doubt she ever wants to be put down," Storm laughed, and Krissy proved her right by snuggling right into her.

Kurt had to laugh and nod his agreement before he tipped his head at Storm. "Were you able to speak with anyone while you were there?" he asked, drawing the attention back to the legal matters.

Storm sighed. "We were able to speak with a few senators and members of Congress," she said. "But for the most part, they were nothing more than photo opportunities to prove that they are listening to both sides — we didn't actually have much in the way of conversation until Henry was able to pull aside Senator Robbins."

Kate made a face at the name. "That's the guy that wants everyone rounded up and shipped out, right?" she said with a look of pure contempt.

"The very same," Storm said, shaking her head as that same flash of anger lit up her eyes for a moment. "We did manage to speak with him, but he absolutely refused to listen to reason. Nothing we said had any effect on him whatsoever."

Kurt frowned the slightest bit but shook his head and instead focused on the little girl in Storm's arms, slipping his tail over Storm's arm to tickle Krissy, and she batted at the tail with a delighted giggle.

"But they're not going to round everyone up — he's just the extreme end," Kate said softly, looking between the two older X-Men with a frown, almost asking them with her gaze to confirm that hope for her.

"And the loudest voice in the room, for the moment," Storm said, shaking her head. "But you're right — no one else is advocating such … extreme measures yet. What little we could get from the senators there… it seems they're drafting a bill for…" Storm paused for a moment to keep the anger out of her tone so close to the little purple elf. "Tracking purposes."

"They're really doing that?" Kate asked, the disappointment clear in her voice as she almost unconsciously moved closer to her little girl.

"I'm not sure what the details are ... if it's surveillance of our movements … or something else," Storm said, the frown deepening. "Henry heard a few whispers of embedded trackers when they thought they were out of earshot."

"Seriously?" Kate said, only just keeping her volume in check, though Krissy got a bit quieter and stared at her mom curiously at the outburst.

"I'm afraid so," Storm said softly. She absently ran the tips of her fingers through the fuzz on Krissy's cheek as the little one cooed happily, and for a while, there was only the sound of Jubilee yelling and Henry very quietly coaxing her through her labor.

Then, very suddenly, there was a new sound — the unmistakable cry of a baby — and all three of the X-Men that had been sitting separately glanced at each other for only a moment before they broke into wide smiles and made their way over to see the new little addition to their family.

The little boy had shock-white hair that was already pretty long, though he had inherited a bit of his mother's attitude, if the annoyed sort of angry fight he was putting up against Henry's attempts to clean him or wrap him up was any indication.

But he settled right out as soon as Henry handed him to Jubilee and his mom curled up with him and whispered her hellos. He stilled very quickly and _stared_ up at Jubilee as Noh leaned over her shoulder with an expression that could only have been matched by melting butter.

Logan had given Jubilee a quick kiss and simply stepped back to leave the little family in peace and to make room for the stream of visitors that were bound to make the rounds, but Jubilee called out to him with a sharp, "Hey, where are you going?"

"Thought you wanted a little breathin' room with your little boy," Logan said with a little surprised look on his face.

"You haven't even said hi!" She jerked her head to indicate that he should rejoin them. "You haven't been introduced. He's got a name, you know."

"I figured as much," he replied with a little frown. "You're a dramatic little pain in my—"

"Sying-Varr," Jubilee declared as she tipped the little guy into Logan's arms — like it or not. "It means 'stars.'"

"Fitting," Logan told her as he adjusted the little guy and shook his head at the hair. "How long are you gonna leave his hair like this? Somehow, I figured you'd get visions of something a little more colorful."

"He's perfect, and you know it," Jubilee said happily, shaking her head at him.

"Course he is, Jubes," Logan said before he made his way over to gently hand him back. "He's yours. He didn't have a choice in the matter."

"You know that's right," Jubilee said with a decisive nod that turned into a little giggle when Noh got to hold the little guy next and was at a complete loss for words.

When Logan started to leave, though, the little guy sat up, just the slightest bit, in Noh's arms to try and see where he was going — to the surprise of everyone in the room but Noh, who seemed to take this as completely normal behavior.

Henry looked over the top of his glasses and seemed completely fascinated. "Is this the result of the faster growth cycle?" he asked, almost to himself, but Noh laughed and shook his head.

"My powers are based in a triple-helix DNA structure — I've had them since I emerged from the genetic constructions. And since Sying has my genetic codes as well… it seems he has my powers, also at birth. I'd guess that enhanced strength would account for his ability to hold himself partially up," he said with a proud sort of smile. "Though we'll have to watch him — I don't want him to harm the other children while he's playing."

"We don't usually have to deal with powers when they're this young," Kurt said as he, Storm and Kate made their way over.

"It's a new experience for me as well," Noh admitted. "When I was grown, it was in a facility that monitored my enhanced development for study — so I am not sure what to do with these abilities in a non-isolated setting, to be honest."

"We'll just have to teach him to control himself," Jubilee said with a shrug.

"If he has any of your intelligence, I'm sure that won't take long," Noh told her warmly as the little guy tucked into his dad and seemed content to drift off to sleep.

"He's adorable, you two," Kate said. "I like the hair," she added with a little grin at one of the bamfs, who winked at her and teleported over to straighten both Noh's and Sying's hair and then cackle with glee.

"He looks like you, Jubilee," Kurt said. "He has his father's hair, but he looks like you."

"Then he'll be simply irresistible, and we'll have to lock him away to keep women from trying to break his heart when he's older," Noh said with a teasing smile despite his perfectly reasonable tone. "If he turns out to be as stunning as his mother, there is no hope."

"Good answer," Storm said with a little laugh.

"It's the truth," Noh replied, and Jubilee just grinned up at him and leaned against his side to give him a hug from where she was still sitting — as a few of the people from the party upstairs started to trickle down to meet the little guy, likely sent by a certain no-longer-present Wolverine.

* * *

It was early morning when K finally made her way very quietly to the medical bay, where Jubilee was recovering. She'd wanted to make sure that she came bearing gifts, and as it turned out, her timing was nearly perfect.

Jubilee had just finished feeding and changing the little one when K glided over to her with a tray full of Swedish pancakes and a few of Jubilee's favorite sweet morning treats for good measure. "Congratulations, sunshine," K said low as she set the tray down. "I figured you might be a little bit hungry after all that work."

"Starving," Jubilee agreed with a nod. "Where were you before? I've been hungry for a while now, and I know these don't take that long," she teased.

"Still had to cook them," she replied. "And I thought you'd want your privacy with the little one, so I waited."

"Are you kidding?" Jubilee half-scoffed. "Noh was so disappointed you didn't come to meet Sying!" She gestured at Noh, who was still pretty well asleep in the chair next to her, though he started to come out of it a bit when she shook his arm.

"You had a steady stream of visitors," K said with a little shake of her head. "I'm sure I couldn't have been missed when you had your new sparkling star."

Noh sat up a bit straighter and shook his head. "Nonsense," he said in a heavy voice. "You're family — you should meet him."

"Well that's why I'm here," K agreed as she took a peek at the long white hair. "Lucky kid takes after his mother."

"That's what I told the others last night," Noh agree with a smile.

"Do you want to hold him?" Jubilee offered. "He's probably just going to sleep on you, but if he was awake ... he's got some really gorgeous eyes."

"Hard to say no to a sleeping baby," K said. "I'll take him while you eat."

Jubilee grinned and gently handed Sying over to K, and the little guy hardly made a sound or a move except to curl up a bit tighter in his sleep.

"What should he call you, do you think?" Noh asked with a teasing sparkle in his eye. "Seeing as I'm brother to your daughter…"

"Whatever you want him to call me," K replied. "I'm certainly not vain about my age."

"I'm kinda partial to Grammy K," Jubilee said with a little grin.

"Oh, that sounds fun," K said with a little laugh. "What does that make Logan?"

"Wolvie," Jubilee said without hesitation. "And if he's being obnoxious — Grampa Wolvie."

"So, it'll be Grampa Wolvie then. I love it," K said with a nod before she peeked up at Jubilee. "Eat up — you're going to need your strength."

"Don't I know it," Jubilee laughed. "I don't know if you heard — but this little guy's already got super strength, and we're waiting to see what else."

"Oh, that's … amazing... and kind of … how does that work out?" K asked, both eyebrows raised at the news. "And super _super_ — or super for a baby?"

"When he gets fussy, I take him," Noh explained. "And it's … both. He's stronger than his age would normally suggest… but he also broke Henry's glasses in one hand."

"Well, that's okay," K said as she glided over toward Noh. "I'm sure Logan and I can help if he gets fussy too. We're a little less breakable than most."

"I would appreciate it," Noh said with a smile. "Until he's old enough to control it, I think the list will be fairly short of who can handle him when he is not sweetly sleeping or otherwise peaceful."

"Plus, you know — Grammy K and Grampa Wolvie gotta get their snuggles in," Jubilee said with a wide grin.

"Yes, just happy coincidence that we're structurally reinforced," K agreed.

"Lucky kid," Jubes said in a sing-song voice toward Sying with a little laugh. "Best grandparents ever."


	6. Weapon X: Live

**Notes: CC reads Sying's name as 'sigh-ing' with the second syllable shortened. Robbie has always read it as 'Sih-ing'. So. Do with that what you will :P**

* * *

 **Chapter 6: "Weapon X: Live"**

* * *

It was pretty much standard policy by that point that any time a member of the team went for a public appearance, they didn't go alone — even though, Kate pointed out, she was only going to talk about Bishop Publishing's holiday books, including the gorgeous, embossed special edition print of _all_ of Charles Xavier's works that they'd published so far.

Still, she had Cassie for a partner, so she wasn't _really_ complaining as the two old teammates talked and laughed all the way down to the studio.

"And I got him this adorable little father/daughter matching tee shirt set for his birthday and wrapped it up as 'from Krissy', so he's pretty much going to melt this weekend," Kate was telling Cassie as they stepped off the elevator.

"I can't tell if that's adorable or evil," Cassie giggled.

"Both," Kate said without hesitation as she waved at a few people she recognized around the set.

"I still can't believe he's in his fifties," Cassie said, shaking her head. "He looks… _your_ age."

"I know. It's so not fair," Kate agreed, shaking out her hair a bit. "He gets the not-aging thing from _both_ sides, so he's pretty much guaranteed to look like an angel for forever. Rude."

"What're you going to do with yourself when you start graying first?" Cassie teased.

"Hey, don't jinx it. Don't even start with that stuff," Kate said quickly, pointing an accusing finger at her best friend before her friend Tina from the stage crew called her over to get ready to go on set.

Kate was a bit surprised to see JJ there — this was supposed to be a business update kind of thing, and she didn't really see what he had to do with that, but she settled into the chair and gave the cameras her best smile. She did her best to ignore JJ as she launched into what she'd come to say, putting particular emphasis on Kamala's next book in the series and the special edition of Charles' work.

But it didn't take long for JJ to make his opinion known: "I find it hard to believe that you're peddling that provocative of an author in the current climate."

Kate paused and raised an eyebrow at JJ. "I'm pretty sure 'peaceful coexistence' isn't provocative, John," she said.

"Well sure, that's the surface message that you're using to get people to buy the book — but that's not really what the current angle is," JJ replied.

"You and I must have read a different book," Kate said, turning to face him a bit better. "But go ahead — please tell me about how I misread the book I went over painstakingly for months when I first started up my new line."

"Surely you can move beyond such divisive subject matter — or at least give an honest author a chance now that you've made your slant toward mutants so painfully clear, Ms. Bishop."

"Bishop-Wagner," Kate corrected him with a glare that she only just managed to soften at the last second.

JJ very nearly smiled her way at that. "So the elusive Nightcrawler _is_ the driving force behind the momentous shift in Bishop Publishing."

"Yeah, no. He didn't even know I was restructuring the company when it was happening. You think I talked _business_ with him when we were dating?" Kate waved her hand like she was waving away a pesky bug. "Family rule: no business discussions outside of the office."

"I'm sure there wasn't much talking going on at all," JJ replied. "Isn't he half demon as well? That's an unfortunate combination to share … free time with."

Kate's business-like demeanor had slipped entirely. "My husband — and my personal life — have nothing to do with the books I put out," she said almost through her teeth.

"Are you trying to say you don't take your work home with you? Because as I understand it, your office hours have been next to non-existent over the past year or so." It was more of a statement than a question, and it had Kate's eyes narrowed.

"I have a home office to get work done, yes," she said carefully.

"Doesn't that make it harder for less … genetically _simple_ authors to pitch their books for publication?"

"John, if you want to submit a book, you'll have to do it like everyone else and mail in a cover letter and your first three chapters," Kate replied, getting a little confidence back. "If I like what I see, I'll set up phone interviews, and if you don't want to come by where I live — and you clearly don't — I'd be more than happy to see you in my New York office like I do for other authors if the book's good enough."

"So you do have appointments in your _home_ , then?"

"Sometimes," Kate said carefully. "It helps some newer authors to get over the jitters if there's a less formal setting."

"Less formal than a school?" JJ asked. "And a school that was targeted in that alien invasion no less?"

"Which probably explains why my office hours were a bit different at the time — not that anyone would travel to see me when we were all busy trying to stay safe during the invasion."

"But that was just a few months ago. Why have you been so hard to reach for nearly a _year_?"

"You know, John, a funny thing happens when you get married?" she said with a bit of heat. "You start building a home together. You know. A little slice of paradise and a family? Not everybody survives on bad cigars and ranting 24/7." She crossed her arms. "Or are you telling me I can't have a family and run a business?"

"I just find it hard to build anything like that when you're in a house full of dangerous and aggressive mutants," JJ said. "That kind of environment … has to take a toll on a person."

"I grew up in Jersey," Kate replied. " _That_ is aggressive."

He actually laughed a bit at that and shook his head. "Very funny Miss Bishop. Very funny. But seriously. How do you find any privacy?"

"There are these things called locks. Pretty neat little inventions. And they go on doors," Kate said, her tone totally serious.

"Not that that kind of thing would stop anyone in that house from going wherever they wanted."

"Actually, they're much better about privacy than my dad was. He took the locks off my door when I was a kid because, you know, I was the youngest daughter, and he was proving a point."

"I wasn't aware that there were such problems on the homefront in your childhood," JJ said. He tipped his head to the side as he seemed to consider her for a moment. "Of course, it's always much easier to make these unsubstantiated claims against a dead man — who, I might add, died under suspicious circumstances, if I recall."

"Yeah, my house caught on fire," Kate said. "And I nearly had a heart attack when my friends told me."

"Where were you that night anyhow? Can you tell me where you were when you found out your last parent was viciously murdered?"

"I was in Bed Stuy with Hawkeye — the other one," she said. "And he can tell you — I more or less shut down for a few hours afterwards." She didn't bother to hide her anger as she added, "But thanks for bringing that up. It's always fun to come onto a show to talk about holiday books and then relive your own orphaning."

"That truly wasn't my intention," JJ said in an almost earnest tone. "But I'm sure you could send some of your housemates to hunt down the culprit."

"John, are you suggesting I ask the X-Men to go on a _personal vendetta_ for me?" she asked, looking and sounding the full, shocked part.

"Just that they could put their vast abilities to good use for a change. Let the police handle the rest, seeing as they haven't found any leads with more conventional means."

"It's good to see you taking an interest in the X-Men's efforts to help where police can't," Kate said with a soft smile. "But I wouldn't ask them to do that for me when there could be an obvious conflict of interest."

"What kind of conflict of interest would that be?" JJ asked, his eyes narrowed a bit.

"Come on, John. How long have you been covering crime stories? Family and friends of the victim shouldn't be in on the investigation."

"Particularly when they might be one of the perpetrators," JJ agreed.

"Wow. That's an unfounded accusation," Kate said, one eyebrow raised high. "Why the heck would any of my friends go after my dad — who they don't even know?"

"Aside from the obvious mutant takeover of Bishop Publishing — and the fact that there are several mutant assassins living in that … that _house_? Oh, I just can't imagine _why._ "

Kate sat up a bit straighter and glared his way. "Nobody took over anything at my company. I inherited it from my dad, and as it happens, I am not the same person as him, so of _course_ I run it differently." She leaned back and shook her head. "And in case you haven't noticed, the books I've been putting out? Not just mutants. I've got authors from Inhumans to mutants to just regular old people — so tell me how that's a takeover."

"You cancelled the contracts on every single author that didn't agree with your tunnel vision."

"And we've been through this before. You and I both know that hate speech just doesn't fly in this day and age."

"I want to know about the killers that you live with — the ones that are allowed access to impressionable young minds in that sham of a school," JJ said, his voice raised — abandoning any sense of trying to tie the story into her publishing company as he went right to the heart of what he wanted.

"You mean the teachers and heroes and parents and mentors who work every day to make sure those kids feel _safe_ and _accepted_?" Kate shot back.

"What could trained assassins possibly be teaching children that would be of use to a balanced, normal individual?" His tone had dropped to nearly a hiss as he leaned forward.

"Literature. Math. History. My husband teaches a drama class. We've even got riding and dancing."

"Your husband isn't an assassin."

"And neither is anyone else. I just thought you were trying to paint them all with one brush. So tell me, John, who is it you're trying to hit so I can better help you find _facts_?"

"The two former Weapon X operatives," JJ replied, and for once she actually almost bought the concern in his eyes.

Kate blinked at him in honest surprise — not at the revelation but at the fact that he knew it and said it live. "Neither of them are part of that program anymore — they didn't want to be in the first place," she said softly.

"Training like that — what I could find — doesn't just go away," JJ said. "They shouldn't be within a hundred miles of those kids."

"Are you going to make that claim for everyone who's been trained to fight? Former CIA? Former SHIELD? They can't have any other life because they know that stuff?" Kate tried to argue.

But JJ shook his head. "We're not talking about a legitimate organization that has checks and balances."

"No, we're talking about a black-ops team that _uses people up_ , and then you want to make sure the people they used don't have futures," Kate said, with some heat — just before the green 'on-air' light cut out entirely. That didn't stop her, though, as she glared over at JJ with even more venom now that she didn't have to perform. "What are you trying to pull?" she demanded.

At that, JJ pulled the mic and set it aside before he leaned toward her. "I wasn't entirely sure about the registration issue when it came up — or this tracking bill as a general rule for all mutants … but for them? People like that? They shouldn't be walking around freely."

Kate also pulled her mic and worked her jaw for a moment before she leaned in as well. "JJ, let me level with you. I've _seen_ some of the crap Weapon X tries to pull."

"They're a defunct organization," JJ said shaking his head.

"No. They're not," Kate said very softly, her expression completely open. "They might say so on their official documents or whatever you've managed to get your hands on, but I've _seen_ them and fought them, and what they do to people is nothing short of slavery and subjugation. If you keep pushing for their victims to be locked up and tracked, you're just wronging them all over again."

"I can't find any proof of anything that isn't thirty years old or more," JJ told her. "And nearly all of that is blacked out. As far as I can figure, the documents I did find were only in existence because of the amount of money _lost._ "

Kate chewed over her next thought for a long moment. "I can only tell you what I've seen, but… if it's proof you need…" She bit her lip. "I'd like to see these guys go down, JJ. Honestly. They tortured and experimented on innocent people, and they have to be held accountable."

"This is the kind of story …"

"Yeah, I know," Kate said, nodding.

"Will your friends talk?" JJ asked suddenly.

"Maybe one of them would," Kate said. "But she'd want to see the final draft of anything that went out to make sure it's not slander — and be on set to make sure you don't try and spin it any way other than what actually happened. And you'd want him to okay it — a lot of it is his story…." She paused, and the ghost of a smile crossed her expression. "And after you break the story, I'll want to interview you myself, actually — for the followup book. If you're interested."

"That might look like I took a bribe to ease up on you," JJ replied with what could be believed to be a teasing smirk.

"Oh please don't ease up on me," Kate said with almost a laugh. "Even if you do the book. It's better for business when I kick your butt."

"You get away with half of what you do just because I let you do it," he defended with some heat.

"It's because I'm a gorgeous young woman and the public loves me," she said soothingly, but with an obvious teasing tone.

"The public doesn't know what's good for them, by the way the ratings have been running," he said half under his breath. He shook his head. "Your two little scary friends are insanely old, by the way. I don't care if it is part of their mutation; it's not natural."

"Yeah, I know. We tease them." Kate shrugged. "Either way, think it over. But for this one? I'm actually on your side. I want this story out there too — the real story — just to piss them off." Kate tipped her head to the side. "I'll have to ask Logan and K first, though. It's not my story to tell."

"If they don't want to come forward, then we just need the documentation," JJ said. "We can give them fake names — or go by the _bookkeeping_ standards." He looked as if the very idea was repugnant and he curled his lip back.

"I'll see what I can find for you," Kate said with a nod. "I think you'd be surprised just… how much you're going to have to report on."

Their quiet conversation was cut a bit short, however, when one of the producers came over to let them know they were going live again — and please, don't bring up government black-ops projects that get the plugs pulled on air.

But JJ had what he wanted — the assurance that there _was_ a story and Kate's cooperation in helping him find it — so the rest of the spot went, well, as smoothly as any meeting between JJ and Kate could go, all things considered. Kate even made sure to do her signature move and redirect the conversation to her latest batch of books.

When she caught up with Cassie, the younger woman was shaking her head at her. "I've never seen that before," she said, but Kate just shrugged.

"JJ keeps saying I'm practicing censorship, but _that_ is what he's talking about. If he didn't have his horse blinders on…" She shook her head and then shrugged again. "But even a stopped clock is right every once in a while. And these guys… you haven't met them yet, Cas, but they're the _worst_."

"I believe you," Cassie said as she slipped her arm through her best friend's. "But maybe let's get you home in one piece after you poked the government in the eye, huh?"

Kate smirked at her friend and let out a little laugh as she allowed Cassie to lead her down to where the car was parked.

"So …" Cassie said slowly, "do you think Peter's going to be able to work with half that stuff? I really love his JJ videos, but some of it..."

"We'll find out later," Kate said, waving her hand as she started the car. "Right now, we've got one more stop to make."

" _Where_?" Cassie asked, wrinkling her nose.

"Bed Stuy." Kate grinned at her friend. "I haven't seen Clint in a while, and you know, he's been in the news a lot recently. Gotta make sure he's doing alright."

Cassie raised an eyebrow at her friend and started to shake her head. "Oh no. I know that look. That's not a good look. That look gets us all in trouble."

Kate smirked as she pulled out of the parking garage. "You're getting to be such a worrywart in your older years, Cas."

Cassie fixed Kate with her best unamused look before she burst into a giggle. "Maybe," she admitted as she leaned back and shook her head. "Though I'm starting to think it's just a natural result of running with the X-Men," she teased.

"Or of adopting all those kids on that team. You're like the den mother now. Big step up from being the baby of the team," Kate teased, and Cassie rolled her eyes.

The two girls traded jabs back and forth all the way down to Clint's apartment after that — Kate teasing Cassie about being the den mother, big sister, and anything else she could think of for the junior X-Men, and Cassie teasing Kate about how she was just projecting, seeing as she was the only one who actually had a kid of the two of them, and would she like more to add to her little posse?

When they got to Clint's apartment building, the residents waved to Kate as usual, and a few of them even called out some encouraging words about the interview that had just aired, before they finally got to Clint's place and Kate, as usual, let herself in.

Both girls were immediately greeted by a very happy Lucky, who was getting older and slower but no less desperate for attention, even with how much Clint spoiled him. And of course, neither of them could resist completely spoiling Lucky as well. By the time Clint came out to the living room, he wasn't surprised in the least to find that Lucky was draped half over Cassie's lap as the younger woman made herself comfortable so the two Hawkeyes could do their thing.

"Saw your interview, Katie," Clint said as he pulled a couple mugs down from his cabinet so he could get them both coffee. "Hard to tell who won this round, actually. Jerk went after Nightcrawler, and I'm pretty sure he was hinting at Krissy." He settled into a bit of a glare as he said it, pushing the mug of coffee Kate's way.

"Oh, I'm definitely sure," Kate said, frowning, though she shook it off and tipped her head at Clint. "Did you watch the whole thing, then?"

"Well, I missed the very beginning, but yeah, I caught it."

"How far did we get into the Weapon X stuff before they caught it and shut us down?" she asked curiously. "I know when the light blinked off, but I don't know about the broadcast itself."

"It wasn't too long," he said. "I can't believe he went there on the air."

"I think," Kate said with a quiet, careful frown. "I _think_ he was baiting them. Testing what he had. Probably figured if it was real, they'd shut him down, and then it would prove him right. Which they did. So you know he's going to keep digging."

"The way he was twitching, it's probably been keeping him up at night," Clint said with a shrug.

"Well, if he's been reading the reports of what those creeps did, I can't really blame him. I've only seen a few glimpses, and it would keep _me_ up at night if I knew more," Kate admitted.

"Yeah, but… here's the thing," Clint said leaning toward them. "If there are any records, I doubt JJ could find them. That group … from what I understand? It's like the Red Room, but with physical augmentation. Mind control. Nasty stuff that I'm sure they don't have much record of, let alone anything available for a reporter to find."

Kate nodded thoughtfully and then leaned in to match Clint's body language. "Maybe JJ can't find it, but… I know a former PI who's interested in ruining their lives."

Clint raised an eyebrow at her. "You can't take that kind of heat on your own. You're good, Katie — but you're not that good."

"Your adorable concern is noted," Kate told him with a small grin. "And if you're so worried, why don't you come with me? We haven't had a Hawkeyes outing in a while — could be fun."

"That is not _fun_ , Katie Kate. Poke these guys, and you'll get yourself killed — or worse."

"Then come play big brother protector or whatever," Kate countered. "But you know if JJ's poking around, he's only going to find the records they _want_ him to find. You think things are bad right now? It's only going to get worse if JJ starts publishing crap about them."

Clint let out a sigh and shook his head at her. "You're, like, a couple months out from just having a baby, Katie Kate. And _this_ is what you want to do for your first big outing after that? Really?"

"You act like I haven't been going out all the time for smaller missions and stuff."

"This isn't like stopping purse-snatchers."

"I'm not a kid anymore, Clint. I think I know the difference between petty crime and a black-ops group!" Kate said, throwing her hands up in frustration.

Clint held up both hands. "I didn't say you didn't; I'm just saying you can't go running headfirst into something like this because JJ wound you up on national television."

Kate poked her finger in the center of his chest. "Let's get something straight. JJ did _not_ wind me up. I'm pissed all on my own because these guys _deserve_ to be taken down, okay?"

The two Hawkeyes were glaring at each other before Cassie broke in with a slight wave to grab their attention. "Hey, Kate ... you forgot to put your phone off silent, and it's been ringing pretty much nonstop. You've got a _lot_ of missed calls."

Kate held Clint's gaze for a moment longer before she went over to pluck her phone from Cassie's outstretched hand, though she frowned for a second when she saw that the calls were all from 'Hawkeye-pool,' as Wade had put himself in her phone — complete with a picture from when he'd stolen Clint's uniform and his sky cycle.

Even as she was frowning at the phone, it lit up again with another call, and she let out a long sigh as she realized he was probably going to keep calling her — or else track her down in person — until he said whatever was on his mind. So, she hit the green answer button. "Hey, Wade. What's up?" she asked, and Clint raised an eyebrow when he realized who she was talking to.

"Why have you been ignoring my calls? I thought we had a _thing_ going on, Better Hawkeye!" Wade called out in an almost desperate tone.

Kate almost rolled her eyes. "I wasn't ignoring you. My phone was on silent for the interview, and I didn't switch it back, sorry."

"Well, alright. Just this once, I'll let it slide," Wade said before he switched to what was obviously his 'dad' tone and added, "If it happens again, we're gonna have words about you putting anything on silent."

"And risk getting teased for the rest of my life about phones going off during missions?" she pointed out with a little laugh.

"So this interview _was_ the start of a mission! Good. I'm in."

Kate raised both eyebrows high and almost laughed. "Oh my gosh, Wade. I — I mean, yeah, I totally want to get these guys, but how the heck—"

"You leave that to me," Wade said. "I've got a few words for these creeps myself. But if you want my expertise, you gotta ask nice — and you gotta _promise_ that I get to be the one to hand over what we find to our little stabby friend."

Kate chewed on her lower lip for a second before she glanced at Clint and then broke into a grin. "Okay. Pretty please — would you come help me kick their butts?" she said in her best, girliest tones — to humor him.

"Oh _YAY!_ and PS, I'm already on my way to get started," Wade said. "Just a little side trip through Stratford on my way back home. Don't you worry about it. As soon as I get back to New York, I'll show you what I've found to start. I know you're busy with your little Hawk-crawler."

"Her name's Krissy, and she's a princess, not a Hawk-crawler," Kate said, biting back a chuckle.

"Well, that's her name _for now._ But you and I both know those little baby X-Men grow up fast, and she'll probably need a codename before she's done with Kindergarten."

Kate laughed at that and shook her head again. "If you say so," she said. "Just give me a call when you get back to New York, okay?"

"Tell him to meet up at my place," Clint called out with a small frown on his face. "No way am I letting you and Wade just… run off into this crap without backup."

Kate beamed at the older Hawkeye for a second. "Hey, Wade — Clint says meet up at his place. Looks like we're getting the band back together."

"Ooooh! Hawkeyes fly again!"

"Yeah, and you're invited too," she teased.

"Well, of course I am! We're going to take down the nastiest baddies in the Northern Hemisphere!"

Kate grinned. "That's right we are. They won't even know what hit them. Or ... well. Maybe they will. But you know what I mean," she laughed.

"Oh. They're gonna know," Wade promised. "They need to know who hit 'em."

"I'll let you sign your work with flourishes and purple pens," Kate promised. "I'm just gonna go see my little princess and my dashing Elf first, alright? And then we'll sit down, make some plans, order pizza, and get this show on the road."

"Yes, this is the plan," Wade said, though she could hear that he was running at that point. "Toodles for now, princess."

"See ya soon, Deadpool," she replied before she hung up and looked up to get the full force of a disbelieving Clint shaking his head at her. "What?"

Clint let out a sigh. "I'm pretty sure my life was way easier before you started inviting Deadpool to things, Katie."

"But less fun, and you know you love him, and _you_ invited him _here_ , so that's your own fault, you idiot," Kate said with a wide, teasing smile before she ran over to give him a hug. "Good to have you on board, though. Let's go kick some butt."

Clint chuckled as he hugged her back. "Go say hi to your family before we go running off into danger, huh? And bring a little demon back with you if you can. This is gonna be a long ride, and I'd feel better about it if I knew you had a way to see Krissy and Kurt in the downtime between places, alright?"

"Sure thing, _Dad_ ," she teased him, and he rolled his eyes at her.

"Seriously, Katie."

"Yeah, I know. Trust me, I'm definitely gonna bring a bamf, okay? I like my family too much to ditch them for too long," she promised. "But these guys _need_ their butts kicked."

"Yeah, they do," Clint agreed. He reached over to mess up her hair by pulling on her headband with a grin. "You'd better get going. Wade's not patient, and if he shows up here and you're still around, he'll take that to mean this thing's getting started."

"He's in Canada somewhere," Kate argued.

"I think you underestimate his ability to get places faster than he should be able to," Clint chuckled. "And your ability to get totally wrapped up in a Nightcrawler — and we gotta give you plenty of time for that," he teased.

"Enabler," Cassie called out from the couch.

"Guilty as charged," Clint called back without hesitation as he took the coffee mug back from Kate. "See ya 'round, Hawkeye."

"See you soon, Hawkeye," Kate corrected him with a grin before she pulled Cassie up from the couch, and the two women headed out, finally on their way back to Westchester.


	7. Weapon X is Ticked

**Chapter 7: "Weapon X Is Ticked"**

Kate was pretty well engrossed in her own thoughts and the idea of teaming up with Wade and Clint again — those were always the craziest of missions, if she was being honest — when she and Cassie pulled up to the mansion again, and so she wasn't really paying much attention to the fact that Scott was there — looking annoyed as usual.

"Hey, boss man," Kate said, half-distractedly. "Sorry I'm late — stopped by Clint's place to say hi."

"Yeah, I saw your interview," Scott said. "Or I should say Bobby dragged me in to see your interview. What happened?"

Kate shrugged openly. "Someone cut out the feed, Scott. JJ knew it was going to happen. He was fishing. Guess he figured they wouldn't think he'd try it on me and not K."

"Why in the world would he be fishing for anything about Weapon X?" Scott asked, clearly more concerned about the direction the interview had taken than Kate realized.

"He's gotten his hands on some stuff. Documents, most of it blacked out — he told me when the cameras went off," Kate explained. "He knows there's a story, and he's going after it, and that whole interview was just to see if he was right — because if they blacked him out, it was true."

"I guess I don't understand why he holds such a sudden interest in a group that dealt almost exclusively in using mutants for lab rats," Scott said dryly.

"Seriously? Blacked-out government conspiracy? This is, like, Watergate-level journalistic bait here," Kate pointed out.

"I just didn't think anyone would care, seeing as it hit mutants so hard," Scott said as he relaxed his stance a bit, though he was still frowning Kate's way. "Is he still pushing it?"

"Oh yeah," Kate said. "He's practically drooling over it, Scott. He asked _me_ for help; he wants it that bad."

"Logan won't talk about it, and he'll probably block K too," Scott warned.

"Can't hurt to ask them, though — and it's not like they're the only ones," Kate pointed out reasonably.

"No," Scott agreed. "But they're probably the most publicly known right now, and definitely the most high profile." He paused for a moment and let out a breath he'd been half-holding. "He's never even told me about it. I don't think he told anyone about it — not outside of the basic 'bad things happened' angle. And technically, K hasn't either. She just left clues on where to dig."

"Yeah." Kate matched his sighed-out body language for just a moment as she rubbed the back of her neck before she looked up to meet his gaze. "But here's the thing, Scott. JJ got those documents from somewhere. And you know wherever he got them, it's easier than where we've looked. So anything else he finds? They'll _let_ him find."

"Right, I get that. You're looking at damage control," Scott said with a little nod. "But unless it's going to help mutants _now_ , you probably ought to step back and not poke them. They _will_ be a problem. For all of us."

Kate chewed on her bottom lip for a moment. "That… might be… um. Wade called me."

"Deadpool?" Scott asked with a frown. "What did he want?"

"To help bring Weapon X down and get all the documents JJ could ever want to dump all over the news," she told him honestly.

"Kate ... what … what did you tell him?" Scott asked carefully.

"Just that he could meet me at Clint's so we could _plan_ ," she tried to assure him. "Just plan, Scott. I thought you'd like that!"

"You can't get involved with him on something this important," Scott insisted. "He'll just make it worse."

"He's _already_ involved," Kate said, unconsciously straightening up as she came to Wade's defense. After all, even if Wade was absolutely bonkers, Kate really did like him and considered him a friend. "He called me from Canada, Scott. You really want him running around out there _without_ me and Clint keeping an eye on him?"

Scott frowned at Kate for a long moment with his arms crossed. "We don't need that kind of attention right now — not with everything else that's going on."

Kate crossed her arms right back at him and glared for a moment before she let out a breath. " _Fine._ I'll talk to Deadpool and try to pull it back a bit. But, Scott ... I don't think you can stop this thing. JJ _is_ going to keep digging, and that's going to bring all sorts of attention — whether me and Wade go looking for it or not."

"Don't worry, Scott," Cassie piped up with a small smile. "Clint seemed pretty determined to keep them from being _too_ stupid, together, and despite appearances, he actually knows what he's doing in that regard."

Scott shot Cassie a bit of a dry look but finally let his shoulders drop with a full-body sigh. "Alright. Come on, Cassie — your team's getting ready to run another sim with Logan and K, and I doubt you want to fight them in your nice dress," he said, the beginnings of a smirk creeping back over his expression.

But they had only just come in from the garage when the intruder alarms went off — loud and flashing — and Cassie couldn't help but say, "Looks like I'm fighting in my dress after all."

They could hear the choppers before they could see them, but the disturbing part was that they could see the massive numbers of black-clad soldiers coming in from the trees — thick enough that they seemed to black out all of the underbrush. And they were coming from every direction.

"This is what happens when you out a secret black ops group," Scott said through gritted teeth, a red tinge already forming at the edges of his eyes. "They get mad about it."

"Like I always say — you know you're doing things right when the bad guys are pissed at you," Kate said as she ran back to her car to get the quiver she kept there.

"Then I guess we're always doing things right," Scott replied as the red tinge grew to a glow.

* * *

Across the mansion, Jubilee and Noh had been chatting with Logan, Kurt, and K in the living room by a fire as both Elin and Krissy seemed fascinated by the newest little addition to the family. Elin was in K's arms and looking over at Sying with wide blue eyes and her mouth barely parted — just staring at him quietly. Krissy was doing the same, only with the occasional quiet sort of coo like she was trying to get his attention. But Sying seemed perfectly content to play with his mom and dad and not really care about anyone else.

But the peaceful, lazy sort of feeling quickly dissipated when the alarms split the air, and Sying immediately burst into terrified screams, trying to hide his head in his mother's chest with little whimpers between screams that sounded more and more painful with each little breath. .

The girls startled, and Elin more or less buried her face in K's shoulder with her hands over her ears. "What now?" K asked, holding Elin tighter, though Logan and Kurt were already on their feet and looking outside.

When Sying started trying to pull on his mom and it was obvious that he was becoming a super-strong pain, Noh scooped him up so he could beat his little fists against someone who could take it a little better, covering the little guy's ears and wrapping him in a blanket to try and block out the noise as best he could for the little super-hearing half-Kree before he went to join the other two men with a deep frown. "I know those uniforms," he said.

"What's the plan?" K asked, glancing toward Logan — who was already running toward the trees with his claws out.

Kurt glanced back at her before he very carefully readjusted Krissy and held one hand out to Noh, who raised an eyebrow and seemed to understand his intent. With Sying and Krissy in either hand, Kurt then teleported to where K was, and an instant later, the two of them were in K's cottage with the three littlest residents of the mansion.

"NO," K half shouted when she realized what he was doing. "He can't fight them on his own, not with all the crap that's been getting dug up! I need to go back!"

Kurt took a slight step back, eyes wide. "I was simply — we needed to get the children away from them, and my arms were full… I wasn't trying to take you out of the fight," he tried to assure her.

"Fine… hurry back with Annie or someone so I can go _help_ ," K said with a clear note of panic in her voice as she set Elin down on a blanket. "Go."

Kurt gently handed her Sying, who was starting to settle a bit without the noise, and then a very scared-looking Krissy, whose tail was twitching and hitting Sying — and distracting him from how upset he was. But when he went to teleport back to the mansion… he couldn't.

"Something is blocking me," he said in a rush of breath.

She looked up at him with wide eyes. "So … just get back as close as you can!"

Kurt nodded quickly and tried again — though he was frustrated to find that the dampening field the Weapon X soldiers had set up kept him from being able to get very close. He was nearly to the edges of the property when he arrived and had to take off at a run to get back to where the others were.

* * *

Logan was, predictably, in the middle of a large knot of soldiers that had a whole slew of new weapons none of the X-Men had ever seen. He was bleeding and looking like they were wearing him down already, though no one was too surprised, considering the dampener field was affecting all of them. He was losing — slowly — but losing all the same from weapons and sheer numbers.

Jubilee and Noh had been closest to Logan and were doing their level best to get to him to help. It didn't help that the power dampeners were keeping Jubilee from just blowing those creeps to pieces, but she was tearing into them with every single trick Logan had ever taught her and with a look of fury. She was already upset that the alarms had hurt her little boy's ears, and on top of that, they were trying to grab _her_ Wolvie — so anyone that got too close got not only the brunt of her fury but a serious earful as she called them all kinds of names in both English and Chinese.

Noh was making a little more progress trying to get to Logan, but he was at a pretty serious disadvantage when the entire world had just recently had weeks' worth of firsthand experience on how best to make Kree miserable. The new weapons they were using against Logan seemed to have devastating effects on Noh, whose attempt to jump into a white run evaporated when he took a heavy hit that sent him crashing down — and he couldn't seem to make any headway.

Though Jubilee and Noh were closest, it was Scott that saw it as it happened when Logan couldn't hold himself up anymore and went down. The soldiers swarmed him in an instant; it was obvious that they had what they were after when they simply took him — tied and barely conscious — and the rest of the soldiers turned to defend their catch as they made their slow retreat, ensuring that they had plenty of time and cover to load Logan up into the chopper and take off.

* * *

Inside the mansion, some of the younger X-Men on the junior squad had been playing with Annie and the twins while they waited for the rest of their group to join them for training. Chance kept trying to take Tyler down, because apparently the little boy couldn't resist trying to take on the biggest guy in the room. And since Tyler was actually a giant marshmallow, it really didn't take much to get him to fall over and play dead, after which Chance asked in a very concerned voice, "You otay? I hurt you?"

Tyler peeked one eye open before he grinned and snatched Chance up to start tickling him. And his sister, who had been giggling over Sophia's scales that shimmered different colors depending on how Sophia let the light hit her, heard her brother's shrieks and ran over to try to tickle Tyler to save Chance.

Annie was watching the whole thing with a delighted look on her face as the kids played with Tyler, who pretended to be completely helpless to their attack and 'let' Chance escape to join his sister in trying to tickle him mercilessly. But when the alarms rang out over the mansion, the delighted look very quickly turned into extreme concern.

Annie snatched up Charlie, and Tyler handed Chance to Sophia while he bounded over to see what exactly was going on. He hadn't gotten far when a unit of armed soldiers caught his attention — or what they were saying caught his attention.

"Make sure you grab any little ones. The ones too small to actually go to school here. They're not interested in teenagers."

Tyler froze. For just a moment, he felt as if something deep in his chest had simply ...snapped before he turned toward the voice and flat out snarled with all he had in him.

He had absolutely no intentions of backing off of those guys as he charged them, but it was just that much more shocking when the man in charge nearly tripped over himself to get _away_ from the broad blonde young man. Tyler took advantage of what had to be a case of mistaken identity and launched forward to backhand the guy before he turned to the other men in the unit and let his lip curl back with another snarling growl.

The fight there was quick and brutal, and Tyler didn't hold anything back until the soldiers were retreating _fast_. He didn't follow them though, instead electing to stick close to Annie and the little ones in case the soldiers came back looking for trouble, though his hands were shaking a bit.

"Um. Nice… energy," Sophia said, her eyes slightly wide. "You okay, Ty?"

"Yeah, I guess so," he said, the growl dropping out of his tone a bit as he took a deep breath and tried to calm down again. "I'm … I've been working on that."

"Well, whatever you've been doing, it's working," Sophia assured him.

Chance looked a bit wide-eyed too as he leaned nearly out of Sophia's arms to try to see Tyler. "Ty otay?" he asked quietly.

"Yeah, buddy," Tyler said, sounding much more like himself. "Just had to scare off the bad guys."

"Who's out there?" Annie asked softly.

"Right now just us. Um... there were some soldiers of some sort. I didn't see any patches or anything though," Tyler admitted.

Just then, Tammy came skidding into the room as well, looking downright worried until she saw Tyler. "Is everyone okay?" she panted. "I thought I heard…"

"We're fine," Sophia said quickly. "Everyone's fine. Right, Chance?"

"All safe!" he reported with a nod.

"I … kinda hit a few guys," Tyler said as he looked down at his hands, frowning at the bruising at his knuckles. "And I'm not healing up. What's going on out there?" The sound of the helicopters taking off was getting loud even where they were in the house, and Tyler was looking toward the windows with a worried look on his face — thinking about what he'd heard the soldiers saying.

Tammy shook her head hard. "I don't know, but I can't use my powers either. But I saw Bobby and Spidey tying up a few guys with webbing — and there's some serious-looking helicopters, and ... it's kinda crazy out there," she half shouted over the sound. "But Jubes seemed pretty mad. She pretty much took a guy's head off."

"Where are the little ones?" Tyler shouted back, worry etched onto his features. "I only saw the twins!"

Tammy looked taken aback by his tone and instantly dropped into a look of worry to match his. "I — I don't know. I didn't see anybody else out there, and then I heard you, so I came here, and…" She shook her head, eyes wide.

He rushed by her in a burst of speed, running toward where the last of the helicopters was taking off — though the line of soldiers protecting their birds was still thick. He could see Cassie and Hisako running toward the edge of the property line trying to follow a couple helicopters that had already taken off and trying to find the edge of the dampening field so they could grow giant and try to snatch the helicopters.

"GET IN THE BLACKBIRD, NOW!" Scott bellowed. "We're getting them back. Right NOW."

Those that were anywhere near Scott didn't even think about arguing or doing anything but following him toward the blackbird as Tyler caught up. Storm was also looking simply thunderous, and Kate was still firing arrows over her shoulder at the soldiers as she ran after Scott. Sophia and Tammy had apparently followed Tyler as well, and they changed course to follow the group at a run.

Naturally, the soldiers knew that they weren't quitting, but they took it as their opportunity to leave themselves. Though they were firing a few shots still toward the mutants, they were retreating into the trees as well.

Not a word was exchanged between the group of X-Men as they booked it as fast as they could, and by the time Scott got them in the air, it was painfully clear that their leader was just about as close to murderous as they'd ever seen him.

* * *

Well out of range of the dampener field, Logan was coming to on the floor of one of the helicopters. He'd been down for a while, and from the scents he was catching blowing into the body of the helicopter, he was near or over the ocean. He looked up at the nearest soldier and took quick stock of his surroundings, realizing quickly that this was eerily like the situation K had said she'd used as a means of escape from the program. But shy one Sabretooth and heavy a few more soldiers.

He lay there for a moment, listening to them talking about how they needed him to heal up a bit, taking stock of himself, and trying to decide the best way to attack while tied — and the best way to escape the cuffs on his hands. He needed to use what he had around him to get _out_ of that chopper. He'd only have one shot, so it had to be perfect.

A quick look at the cuffs and he knew that they weren't something he'd be able to break, but his legs were just tied with rope, so...

It happened fast. He'd timed it out, anticipating what the soldiers would do and how quickly he'd have to react before someone got a dampener out or slapped a collar on him. The first soldier got headbutted as he rushed him, then Logan moved on to take advantage of the small space as they tried to pile on him and simply overpower him with numbers. A moment later the claws came out, and he started slashing and stabbing as best he could before he jammed his claws through the roof of the chopper, wincing as he heard the machinery screeching and shredding.

A moment later, he forced his way out of the chopper, simply jumping into the black water below as the chopper began to spiral wildly out of control and then careen into the sea nearby.

Logan half growled to himself. He _hated_ swimming in deep water — and it couldn't have been much worse, seeing as he still had his hands tied in front of him. With no other option, he simply started to try and head for shore — very, very slowly.

* * *

In the blackbird, it was dead silent, and it seemed like everyone was half holding their breath and waiting as they sped after the Weapon X soldiers. So when Kate leaned forward in the copilot's seat and let out the softest of gasps, it sounded louder than usual and seemed to echo in the jet.

The could see the smoking remains of the helicopter in the water — it was sinking fast, so it must have been recent — but they couldn't see any sign of any living _person_ in the water itself.

Scott looked like he might break his jaw for how tight he had it clenched shut as he took them in closer to the water, when all of a sudden Sophia's soft, melodic voice broke the silence.

"Lower the ramp," she said. "I can find them if they were in there — and you guys can keep going ahead in case they were in the other ones."

"I'm sure at least one of them was in that if it crashed," Kate pointed out.

"Yeah, but we don't know about the other one," Sophia said. She was looking down over the waves with a determined sort of look. "Trust me — I can do this."

"I can lower her down," Tammy offered. "That way, you don't have to make the jump from too high."

The three older heroes glanced at each other for a moment before Tyler leaned toward Scott. "I heard the soldiers talking about grabbing the kids — the ones that are too young to be students," he said quietly. "I know the twins are safe, but I didn't see anyone else…"

Scott looked somewhere close to panicked at that, but before he could work himself up and give himself a coronary, Kurt's voice came over the comms. "The soldiers took their dampening field with them. The bamfs and I have been through the entire mansion, and it looks like all of the kids are alright — though we're missing Tammy, Sophia, and Tyler. Are they with you?"

Scott let out a steady breath and nodded. "Well. At least there's that," he said to himself before he hit the comm to respond. "They're with me," Scott said. "We're trying to find the ferals. Crashed helicopter — no idea who's responsible for it — and Ty said the soldiers were after the kids. Can I assume that at least Krissy is safe?"

"She's with K and Elin and Sying at the cottage. I was able to get them there before the dampening field went up, but I wasn't able to get back until just now."

"It's Logan then," Scott said clearly, both to those in the jet and to Kurt over the comms. "We'll have to back away just so we can find him once you're in the water." The last bit he directed to Sophia as he brought the ship near the wreckage and hovered so she could get into the water easier.

Kate stepped over to help her down, careful to hand her a communicator. "If you find Logan, just let us know so we can come back for you with something more heavy duty to fish him out."

"I'll let you know as soon as I find him," she promised, eyeing the drop for a moment before Tammy helped to ease her down to the water, and she slipped down below the waves.

Once she was in the water, Sophia had to grin despite the situation, because she always felt more at home under the waves. She could see farther and hear better, and she simply started toward the wreckage with smooth, easy strokes as she breathed in the water and let it flow through her.

It took her a little while before she spotted the shadow that didn't seem like it fit in with the rest of the wreckage and everything else around her. She propelled herself through the water quickly until she was close enough to recognize Logan, trying to float on his back toward the surface.

She zipped up and hooked one arm underneath him with what she hoped was a very X-Man-like superheroic grin before she and Logan broke the surface, and she reached for her comm, still half struggling to keep an arm around him. "Found him!" she called out. "I found him!"

"Is he okay?" Scott asked as he looked for the blip of her beacon. "He's got a little history with not doing real well in a lot of deep water."

Sophia looked him over for a second. "Just out of breath, I think. And kinda, um, beat up? But sorta like he always looks after a fight? Not _super_ beat up." She started to pull them both toward the shore, though they weren't swimming nearly as fast as she was used to with her heavy Wolverine burden.

It was about half a mile to shore, which really wasn't a problem for Sophia, since she did better in the water anyway, but she kept half an eye on Logan the whole time as he tried to help her keep them both above the surface of the water.

By the time they reached the shore, the rest of the X-Men were waiting for them on the beach, and both Tammy and Scott ran forward to help with the last few yards. Scott put his arm under Logan's shoulders and Tammy grabbed Sophia's arm and checked over her friend — Sophia had never swum _that_ far before, especially not weighed down. But Sophia seemed fine, and Scott got Logan upright, which had everyone in the group letting out breaths of relief.

"Storm come with?" Logan asked as he half lifted his hands, still cuffed with what certainly appeared to be adamantium.

"Right here, Logan," Storm replied as she very quickly slipped over to work her magic, surprising even some of the older X-Men with how quickly she was able to pick the lock.

"They get anyone else?" he asked, looking up at Scott.

Scott shook his head. "Everyone else is either back at the mansion or with K," he said. "Kurt got her and the little ones out before the dampening field went up."

"She's not gonna be happy," Logan said as he started to make his way with Scott back to the blackbird. "Used her trick to get out — with a little twist."

Scott had to smirk at that. "Don't know why they didn't see that coming. They must not think you two talk."

"I think they figured I wouldn't jump," Logan said. "Being cuffed. She wasn't when she ran from 'em."

"Well, it's a good thing they overlooked that. But you know they won't next time," Scott said with a small frown.

"No kidding," Logan grumbled. "Course, I don't think they had time to radio what happened before I took the rotors out."

"Good point," Scott said, the smirk returning for just a moment.

The little group was in a much better mood flying back to the mansion than they had been flying out, and the younger kids were even swapping stories not only about what had just happened but other things like how their classes were going — so it was apparent they were feeling a lot better now that everyone was safe and accounted for.

When they got back to the mansion, the kids split off to go find their friends and also get a bit of homework done — and the older X-Men were headed to check on some of the damage the soldiers had done and to do a bit of cleanup

But Logan was not in the mood to do much of anything but find his family and called out to Kurt to either bring his wife back or take him to her. "I want my girls back, _now._ "

Kurt couldn't stop the small smirk that spread over his face at that before he tipped his head at the others and teleported away to get K and the youngest members of their family. He reappeared a few moments later by Logan, with K carrying both Sying and Elin — since Sying was a little fussy and tired and cranky — and Kurt carrying Krissy.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," Kurt said with a small smirk Logan's way as one of the bamfs appeared with Noh in tow, pointing over at K with a very pointed look.

"Come on, my little starling," Noh said with a smile as he scooped the squirmy little guy out of K's arms and started to very quietly hum to him, which calmed him down quickly. "Let's get out of their way," he added between the bars of the Kree lullaby.

K barely let Logan get a hold of Elin before she kissed him and half wrapped around him, with Elin snuggling into him with a giggle. It took a moment, but once he let her go she very quickly looked him over. "What happened to you?" K asked as she fretted over the damage to his clothes — that were still soaking wet with sea water. "And why are you wet?"

"Ran into some trouble," he replied before he glanced up at Kurt with a quiet 'thanks' then simply led K away with Elin snuggled into his chest.


	8. Tyler Creed v Barney Fife

**Chapter 8: "Tyler Creed v. Barney Fife"**

It had taken more than a few weeks, but Tyler had finally gotten into a routine and was dealing with campus life. He was looking forward to Thanksgiving Break so that he could get away from all of the _looks_ , though. He'd seen it before, of course. The other students that wouldn't sit anywhere near him. The kids who shouted "freak," "animal," "feral," and whatever else they could think of while he was walking between classes or going to the library. He was honestly pretty used to it. But it would really be nice to spend some time with his mom and Henry for the holidays without having to put up with that nonsense.

Before he got to the holiday break, he had to get through a pretty big microbiology exam, which meant he was in the library with a stack of notecards and his earbuds in to ignore the people around him. Normally, he'd have studied with Hisako, but she was actually in the middle of _taking_ a test at the moment for a different class. And he was starting to feel the stares on the back of his neck even if he wasn't listening to them.

Hopefully the negative press thing would blow over soon, but in the meantime, he had studying to get done, and he wasn't going to let these people get in the way of him becoming a doctor.

It was a little later than usual when he finally left the library, his notecards in his bag and about a hundred different bacterial names and their related diseases running through his head. He was still running through them all as he wrapped his headphones around his iPod to put it back in his bag. Noh had given him a playlist of songs that he assured Tyler would help him to focus and concentrate, though Tyler had only made it through a couple songs before he defaulted back to his usual playlist.

He was halfway across campus when he spotted a group of kids loudly joking around and generally blowing off a little steam, so he skirted across the street to stay out of their way. But when they spotted him, they kicked themselves into motion to head toward him.

Tyler let out a sigh and tried to keep his head down, though he was familiar with the look they were giving him, and he figured he wasn't going to pass without some conflict.

"That's the most pathetic thing I ever saw," said one of the bigger guys with a sneer. "Feral thinks he's smart enough to be a college student. What, you think if you come on campus you'll learn by osmosis?"

Tyler rolled his eyes and tried to keep going past them, not in the mood to deal with their trash talk when he had more important things to do — and much more intelligent people to talk to.

But they didn't back off and instead kept pace with him as another one spoke up. "Aw, you confused him, Paul. Big words like 'osmosis' and 'campus' and 'think.'" He grinned at Tyler like he was sizing him up, and Tyler could see him quickly deciding the group of them was big enough to take him on.

"What's an animal like you doing here anyway? The bio lab run out of specimens?" one of the guys piped up.

Tyler actually had to half smirk at that one, because, well, he knew he'd seen this guy a few days before outside of the lab.

"Where you headed, feral? Back to the woods? Got a nice log to sleep under?"

"Nice of you to ask, but you're really not my type," Tyler replied finally. "Not interested."

The other guys let out a chorus of 'oohs' as the one who had tried to insult Tyler looked livid. "Paws off, freak," he managed at last with a look of pure disgust.

"Can't help that that's what's on his mind. Animal instincts," said another as the group as a whole snickered.

"Nah. Just proof you're not very intimidating," Tyler replied almost lazily.

The guys looked a bit annoyed for a second before they started in again. "Must think you're so big and bad, don't you, freak? Well, how big and bad're you gonna feel when we ship you off to Siberia, huh?"

"Kick 'em out," agreed his buddy.

"Wow, so you're failing biology _and_ government. Hard to keep your football scholarship that way, isn't it?" Tyler asked offhandedly.

That seemed to push at least one of them into actual anger and not just harassment as he ran forward to try and punch Tyler — which set off the rest of the group of football players, who ran to help their buddy.

For the most part, Tyler tried to deflect as best he could and try not to take any real damage. These guys were big, but not trained to fight, so he was able to handle them — up until one of the guys pulled out a pocket knife and jammed it into Ty's side.

He snarled at the injury and simply grabbed the offending attacker and slammed him to the ground one-handed before he pulled the knife out of his side. "What is _wrong_ with you?" Tyler shouted. "You can't just stab someone!"

That had a couple of the guys scattering — though whether it was the snarl, the fact that Tyler had pinned one of their own, or the fact that the knife wound hadn't done the damage it _should_ have, it wasn't entirely clear. But a few more started to scatter when they heard the whoop of a campus police car showing up as well, even though a couple guys were stupid enough to stick around and immediately try to run to the officer. "This freak just attacked us, man!" one of them said.

"Your buddy stabbed me!" Tyler said with no small amount of outrage as he gestured to the bloody spot on his shirt. "I just stopped him from doing it again!"

"It was self-defense!" the guy on the ground half whimpered out. "I ain't got no freak powers like you."

"Yeah, we had to stop him — he's one of those feral mutants like they've got on the news," piped up his buddy.

The cop took in the scene of the group of teenagers and glared for a second, his arms crossed. "I'm gonna need backup," he said into his shoulder radio before he looked right at Tyler. "Release the young man and keep your hands where I can see them," he said in a sharp tone.

Tyler let out a breath and locked his jaw tightly before he did as he was told — careful to keep his hands in plain view. This was not good.

"You gonna arrest him for assault, officer?" the guy Tyler had pinned asked with obvious delight. "I'll give a witness statement."

"I'll want all you boys to come with me down to the station," the officer said without taking his eyes off Tyler — looking like he wanted a reason to draw his weapon.

When the second police car arrived, the first officer had all the boys that had stayed behind get into his car, while Tyler was in the second. And before they knew it, all four were down at the station.

The officer who had arrived on the scene was sure to keep Tyler separate from the other three as he took their statements on how Tyler had attacked _them_ — going so far as to say they'd tried to run away before he grabbed their friend, and _that_ was why the kid stabbed Tyler in the first place.

And considering the climate, and the definite bias against ferals in particular, Tyler soon found himself being taken down to the station without his statement taken into consideration.

* * *

"She'll take the bottle if you heat it right, but if she's being fussy, sometimes it helps to distract her with a bamf so she doesn't realize she's eating and not playing — and don't forget to watch out for the tail when you change her, and—"

"Kate, seriously, relax," Jubilee said, shaking her head. "You know Kurt already knows all this stuff."

"Yeah, I just don't know how long we'll be gone, so if he gets tied up with something, you need to know it too," Kate pointed out. "I'll be back often... I'm taking a bamf with me so I can come home for the downtime. You know. The parts where we hit a dead end. Again." Kate shrugged up her shoulders and ran a hand through her hair. "Being a PI was tough the first time, too."

Jubilee rolled her eyes at her. "You'll be fine. We won't let anything happen to little Krissy except maybe too much fun, right?" She looked over her shoulder at Noh, who was very quietly singing to Sying to try and get him to sleep, and he looked up only to blink and nodded his agreement before he went back to what he was doing — though it wasn't clear if he knew what he was agreeing _to_.

"Alright, well. I'm off," Kate said for about the third time in the past ten minutes before the house phone rang, and she paused. "I got it," she said quickly and ran to the phone to pick it up. "Xavier's Institute for Higher Learning — this is Kate Bishop-Wagner. How can I help you?"

"Hawkeye, it's Hisako," came the voice on the other end. "These guys just attacked Tyler, and the police showed up. They're saying Tyler attacked them, and they took them all down to the station. You should probably send someone after him before those guys try to frame him for assault or something."

Kate frowned and looked over her shoulder at Jubilee and Noh before she nodded. "Alright. I'll send someone right away. Thanks, Hisako." She turned to face the other two. "Ty's in trouble with the police, if you can believe it," she said.

Jubilee flipped out her cell phone and waved at Kate with it. "I've got it covered. Go. Handle your evil whatever. Which station is he at?" She already had the phone to her ear and was looking at Kate expectantly.

"The one on campus," Kate said. "And thanks. Wish I could go save our darling little Lifeguard, but Wade's already blowing up my phone telling me I'm late." With that, she nodded at her little bamf buddy, and the two of them disappeared in a puff of smoke.

* * *

Tyler was in a rare, growingly foul mood. The police had, of course, put him in a cell while the kids that had actually started the fight were free to roam and were even taking turns muttering trash at him through the bars while the cop was occupied.

"The evidence supports your story," the cop was telling the kid who had stabbed Tyler. "There's no sign of any stab wound, and we did find him pinning you down."

Tyler did all he could to keep from groaning outright, instead clenching his teeth together tighter before he started pacing in the cell. Total. Set up.

As if to echo the whole mood of the afternoon, the sky seemed to open up, finally, and a downpour of cold November rain began. Tyler let out a weary sigh listening to the rain pouring on the roof and took a seat. It would likely be hours before this clown allowed him to take his phone call — if at all. He'd already put him off twice, after all.

But as Tyler was starting to really feel sorry for himself, the door to outside opened, and someone stepped inside — though he didn't bother looking up, sure that it was the MRD or someone else equally fitting for the day he was having.

"Who do I gotta talk to to get a kid outta jail?" Logan asked as he took off his hat and gave it a good shake in the middle of the precinct before he made his way over and leaned against the counter.

"You can't just walk in here and demand we let people out," said the officer who was dealing with the kids in a tone that said he knew who Logan was and didn't like it in the least.

"Believe me, if I make a demand, you'll know it," Logan rumbled as he turned his full focus on the officer. "I asked who I had to talk to. An' judgin' by the chip on your shoulder, I'm guessin' that's you."

The officer glared at him. "You'll have to wait until we set bail on his assault charges."

"Yeah? Why don't you tell me exactly what the charges are, though if he's under arrest, I guess I should ask: has he been read his rights yet, or should I call up my lawyer?" As he spoke, Logan had pulled his phone from his pocket and was already scrolling for Murdock. He looked up at the officer as he hit the button and waited for the answer.

"What are you, this kid's father?" the officer sneered.

Logan let out a hollow sort of laugh and smirked. "He wishes. Nah, you could say I'm a family friend. Me and his dad go way back."

"Well, either way, he's up on assault charges, after he—"

Logan held up one hand to cut the cop off as he turned his back to him and started talking low to Murdock, who apparently had been filled in on the way to the station on what was happening. The cop stared at him, dumbfounded for a moment as Logan spoke low then turned around to put the cell on speaker and hold it out. "Go on, Murdock," Logan said just before Murdock started reading the cop the riot act on civil rights before he ended with, "As his lawyer, I have a right to know what he's charged with in detail immediately before I slap you with a lawsuit for violation of my client's basic civil rights."

Through the whole thing, Logan unblinkingly held the cop's gaze, expressionless and waiting. When Murdock was done, and the cop looked fit to be tied, Logan stepped in again, loud enough to be sure he was heard. "Thanks, Matt, I'll let you know how to get here if they don't cut him loose in the next ten minutes." With that, he turned the phone off and glared at the cop. "Runnin' on a timer, Barney."

The cop sputtered for a second before he turned a beet red with his glare Logan's way. "That kid attacked three innocent boys. I've got their witness statements here."

"That's crap, and you know it," Logan half growled out. "You don't even believe your own lie."

"The evidence supports it, and there's three sworn statements on his assault and battery."

"Yeah? Three sworn statements? From these jokers?" Logan asked as he looked over to the lined up football scholars. "They haven't got a mark on a one of 'em, they're _holding_ , and you're gonna believe them? Enough to risk your job? Why don'tcha check 'em for drugs, seein' as you're convinced it's fine to hold people who're victims. Might wanna make sure your story'll hold water in court. But I should warn ya. I'm never wrong."

The football players looked a pale at that as the officer looked their way at an obvious loss. He tried one last reason: "I saw with my own eyes — that kid was practically sitting on this young man."

"Was that before or after he got cut?" Logan asked, tipping his chin up at the one in the middle. "Washed out high school starter's got Tyler's blood on his sleeve and under his nails. That get there by magic?"

"It was self-defense," the middle kid muttered.

Logan took a step toward him and narrowed his eyes further as he looked him over slowly. "Ya really wanna lie to me? 'Cause let me tell you — had ya stabbed me? I'd've stabbed ya back."

The kid looked down at the ground to avoid Logan's gaze.

"Why don'tcha try the truth out before I get mad and forget how to get home on my own?" Logan said in a low tone laced with a growl.

"Hey. You can't threaten these kids in this station," the cop cut in with heat in his voice.

Logan turned with a wicked smirk, his eyes flashing. "What was my _threat_?"

"I know how this works with you people. Lose your temper and half a city block ends up ruined. You try and get mad at these kids, and you'll get locked up with your kid too."

"You're thinkin' of the Hulk. I'm not big on trashin' buildings — just assholes. Now. Seems to me like if you got a problem with mutants or ferals then you're in the wrong damn line of work. Me? I'm here to get a kid out of jail that has yet to be read his rights or charged, so by the letter of the law, you gotta do both if you wanna hold him. You wanna charge him? Great. Go for it. I'll bail him out right now. Don't wanna charge him? Fine. Let him out or I'll give Matt Murdock a call back. He loves chewing on redneck morons compensatin' for what nature didn't give 'em. Either way, you can't throw me outta here — and I'm stayin' until he gets out."

"You need ID to bail him out — and we haven't even set the bail yet," the cop said stubbornly.

"You haven't legally arrested him yet either. Clock's ticking," Logan reminded him as he pulled out his wallet. "You want ID? Fine. Two forms. Both meet up with state laws. I checked." He tossed his driver's license and Avengers ID on the desk, then leaned on the counter again. "Still not leavin'."

The cop glared at Logan openly as he looked over his ID, then at the three football players, and then at Tyler, who was starting to smirk by this point at the show Logan was pouring on this guy. The cop finally glanced up at the middle kid, who did in fact have Tyler's blood on him, before he let out a noise of frustration. "Alright, fine. Take this freak and get out. But I'm warning you: he puts another toe out of line, and we'll bring charges so fast it'll make your head spin."

"That'd be impressive," Logan replied with an easy drawl.

When they let Tyler out of the cell, another officer, who had seen the whole thing go down, was searching the three football players — who were, as Logan had said, all holding various recreational drugs. Tyler was smirking wider as the three kids were charged with possession, more than a little entertained by how the day was shaping up.

But there was one hurdle left as Logan waited for the cop to finish the paperwork. He signed for Tyler in a few spots, then stared at the cop. "I'll take that ID back now," Logan said, still unblinking.

The cop glared at him for a second. "Still being processed. The driver's license checked out, so you can take the kid home, but that other ID has to be run a little more thoroughly."

Logan smirked. "How thorough you need it? If I gotta call someone in charge over there, you'll be looking for a new job before I hang up the phone."

"Just gotta make sure it's _current._ I know a couple of you people got on the team, but you're on and off again," the cop said with a glower before the other one, the one that was charging the kids with possession, shook her head at him and plucked the Avengers ID from behind the counter to hand it to Logan.

"Have a good day, sir," she said with a small smile at the corner of her lips.

"Thanks, darlin', you too," he replied before he tipped his hat her way and led the way out with Tyler in tow. Not a word was spoken all the way to the Jeep, and once they were inside, Logan let out a little breath. "Alright, kid, what really happened?"

Tyler sighed and frowned as he buckled in. "There were about nine of them before that officer showed up. They tried to rile me, call me names, all that stuff, and when it didn't work, they thought they'd try and pummel me instead." He smirked the slightest bit. "Which didn't really work until one of them pulled a pocket knife and caught me by surprise, so I pinned him."

Logan nodded to himself. "Better than I'd've done. I wasn't jokin'. I'd've stabbed him back with a little more'n a pocket knife."

"Yeah, well, honestly, I didn't have time to do anything but pin him before the cop showed up," Tyler said.

"The way things are goin, you shouldn't travel alone," Logan said. "Not 'cause I don't think you can handle it — more 'cause I think you'd do well to have a witness. You're lucky Hisako saw you get picked up."

"I was wondering how you knew to come get me," Tyler said, shaking his head. "That guy kept putting me off when I asked to call the institute."

"I figured as much," Logan said. "Happens pretty frequently, truth be told."

"Trust me, I know," Tyler said with a nod.

"Turned out alright, all things considered," Logan said, leaning back as they headed down the road. "K wanted to come get you."

"I'm… kind of glad she didn't."

"Me too," Logan admitted. "They'd have locked her up, and she'd have broken out."

"And then we'd have a whole other set of issues, and I'd probably be charged as an accessory to boot," Tyler said with a small chuckle.

"Yeah, well her solution was to kill the cops and the kids there if they were too stupid to wise up." Logan shook his head. "She keeps it cool most of the time, but she's had just about enough of this crap."

"Yeah, I'm pretty close to losing my temper myself, to be honest."

Logan raised an eyebrow at that. "I'll have Hisako get your car for you," he told him. "You can ride into class with her tomorrow."

Tyler nodded. "Sounds good. We usually stick together ... just… slightly different classes. But we'll figure it out." He smiled over at Logan. "Thanks again, really."

Logan simply nodded at that, and the two fell into companionable silence on the drive back to the institute.


	9. Middle-Aged Mutant Ninja Turtle

**Notes: Yeah, Scruffy, those jerks totally deserved more than what they got, but our sweet Ty needed to get away from Barney Fife. But we're loving your enthusiasm for Logan's methods ;)**

 **And griezz, we're laughing pretty hard at your approximation of an Andy Griffith review. Gah-lee is right :P**

* * *

 **Chapter 9: "Middle-Aged Mutant Ninja Turtle"**

* * *

When Kate and her little bamf arrived at Clint's apartment, Clint and Wade were already clearly ready to go and were hanging out in the living room waiting for her.

"Sorry — had to get things settled with the babysitters," she told them both. "What've you got for us, Wade?"

"Babysitters? Don't you just need one? Or did I miss something a few chapters back?" Wade asked with his head tipped to one side.

Kate ignored that last question, well aware that she couldn't keep up with Wade's nonsense. "Well, you know — in case Kurt is busy. Jubes and Noh are on standby."

"Pretty sure that would be up to him to find a sitter then, right?" Wade asked.

"I'm just… you know. I just worry."

"Control freak?" Clint offered.

She shot a glare at him. " _No_. I just haven't left her alone for more than a day-long mission before."

"Control freak," Wade whispered in agreement.

"You two are so off on the wrong foot already. Remember who _invited_ you to this shindig," Kate said with her hands on her hips.

"I invited myself," Wade defended, mimicking her body position. "Because these are _my_ bad guys."

"And so did I. For some reason," Clint agreed. "Because I'm an idiot."

"I didn't realize you'd peed on the bad guys to stake your claim, Deadpool," Kate said.

"Oh no, mamacita, they peed on me. It's my turn to pee on them." Wade's voice was low and soothing as he said it.

"Well, okay," Kate said, raising an eyebrow at him before she shrugged. "So ... what've you got? That Canada trip of yours had to be good for something."

"Oh, you know it," Wade said, perking up a bit from the slightly serious tone he'd had moments before. "I have medical records, acquisitions, _false_ releases — _they were all signed by the same two people for over eight hundred missing people,_ " he whispered out. "And a little bit of a who's who of evil snow-dusted Canadian bad guys." He looked between the two of them for a moment. "For starters."

Kate and Clint glanced at each other and both had the same surprised, raised eyebrow expression.

"It's possible that I may have been collecting what I could find on these guys a little bit before this nifty team up started," Wade said before he drew in a deep breath and held it for a second. "Anyhoo …. How 'bout we get moving?"

"They're your bad guys, apparently," Kate said, gesturing for him to lead the way.

"That's what I said, silly," Wade said with a little laugh. "You know, I didn't realize that it was a requirement to be _deaf_ to be a Hawkeye."

"And you want to be a Hawkeye. I can help," Clint said almost under his breath.

"Well you can sure try, spandex," Wade said with an obvious grin. "But it won't stick. Nope — not after what these baddies did."

Kate looked honestly surprised. "Wait, wait. _These_ guys did…"

"Well — I thought that was why you wanted me to join you," Wade said. "Didn't you ever hear my origin story?"

"I just gave her the basic overview," Clint told him as they headed down the stairs for his car.

"And left out all the creamy filling. Obviously," Wade said. "Like — all of it." He took a few steps to match pace with Kate before he threw his arm over her shoulder. "It's a tragic, _tragic_ tale, really. I was a young, well … not too young ... but that's not the point. I was a top-notch special forces soldier that came down with about eight kinds of aggressive cancer — awful stuff. So nasty no one would touch it. But then I found this neat little Canadian program that promised all kinds of things — said they could take your broken body and turn you into a superhero."

He took in a deep breath and let out a breathy sigh. "Long story short — they lied. Took some super famous mutant DNA sequence and tried to mesh it with mine. It stopped the cancer — that much was true," he said with a bit of an edge to his voice. "But it screwed up my face and drove me freakin' nuts. So yeah. These baddies are mine."

Kate had fallen entirely silent before she threw her arms around Wade for a second. "Yeah," she said when she had properly hugged him. "They're yours."

"I thought you knew that's why I called Wolvie my brother?" Wade said as he gave her a bear hug. "You know. That and our familial snuggly gene that I _clearly_ got from him."

"Clearly. You and he — huggable snuggly healers," Kate said with a smirk.

"Don't encourage him," Clint muttered, though he was grinning despite himself.

"I did some digging, thought maybe that girl of his might have had the same procedure? Not so," Wade said. "Sad to say it — but the girls' a natural all on her own. No fun. No fun at all."

"Yeah, some of us gotta work for it," Kate said with a smirk, trying to cheer him up again as she bumped his shoulder with hers. She looked up at Clint for a second. "Think that's what the Kree did to you? Something like that — try to give you healing so they could torture you more?"

"Katie-Kate, no," Clint said, half eyeing Wade. "We're not going there."

"I'm just saying, maybe we could find out."

" _Vas is das?_ " Wade said, turning toward Clint. "What's she talkin' 'bout, Hawk-guy?"

Clint sighed as he set his jaw for a second and climbed into the driver's seat of his car. "Nothing, Wade. It's really not a big deal."

"Did those big bad aliens augment you with something from the mean tiny woman? Are you a non-mutant-mutant with me now?"

"No," Clint said firmly before he sighed and shook his head, knowing that Wade wouldn't let it drop now that he had a hold of it. "No. Stark and Richards and even Hank McCoy looked into it, and it wasn't anything the Kree did."

"Was it something she did?" Wade asked in a whisper. "Did she touch you?"

"Get your mind outta the gutter, Deadpool," Clint said, waving him off. "No, I'm this way all on my own, okay?"

Kate frowned. "But… you're not a mutant. The Sentinels and all the anti-mutant tech and… You can get past all of that without setting it off. I know. You've helped me run rescue missions!"

"It's complicated," Clint said.

"Define complicated," Kate said, a fair amount of worry to her tone. "You okay, Hawkeye?"

Clint let out a bit of a groan, suddenly wondering how he had gotten _both_ Kate and Wade on this track. "I'm fine. Just ... some … technicality. Apparently I'm a carrier ... but like … it's some kind of … evolutionary offshoot. Not … exactly a mutant. Or something. Just enough to heal the proactive stuff. You know. Don't get too sick. Not gonna need reading glasses… It really doesn't matter."

Kate reached over to put a hand on Clint's arm and fell silent for a second as she just watched him.

"So you really are a special snowflake then," Wade said seriously. "Like … _special_ special snowflake. OH! You're an endangered species!" He clapped both hands over his mouth at that.

Clint groaned. "Please. _Please_ don't go telling people I'm an endangered hawk."

"But you _are!_ All regal and noble on your lonely perch!" He sucked in a deep breath and spun toward Clint. " _You're like lonesome George!_ "

"Kate, I blame you," Clint said, glaring her way.

"No no! Hear me out!" Wade said, his arm over Clint's shoulders. "He was, like, the last of his species of tortoise on the Galapagos Islands! You're not a hawk at all! You're a tortoise!"

"Don't — don't call me that," Clint said.

Wade patted his shoulder absently. "I'm gonna need a whole new repertoire of puns," he said softly to himself. "Less feathers, more shell." He gaped. "Wait. Wait. You went by _Ronin_ for a while. Do you know ninjitsu?"

Clint nodded absently, wondering how this had become this life. "Had to know plenty of stuff like that when I stopped with the bow."

"You're _Donatello_! Middle-Aged Mutant Ninja Turtle!"

"Aww, Wade. No," Clint moaned.

Kate grinned and patted Clint's shoulder consolingly. "Is it okay if _I_ keep calling him Hawkeye, though?" Kate asked, looking back to Wade in the backseat.

"You _do_ like vintage," Wade said, looking out the window with his hands folded in his lap.

"Well as long as I've got permission," Kate said with a little smirk.

Clint let out a long and drawn out groan. "This is going to be a long trip."

* * *

The Hawkeyes and Deadpool arrived at Regina, Saskatchewan, after a long drive filled with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle puns and an even longer flight filled with promises of eye masks, shells, and other things. As well as a very short game during their trek out to what Wade promised was a hidden facility in which Wade named everything he could think of to rhyme with Regina and Kate smacked him with her bow to make him stop.

" _Fine_!" Wade shouted at her. "I only knew the one word anyhow!"

"I _know_!" Kate said right back, and Clint bemoaned for the twentieth time ever agreeing to this trip.

"How 'bout we play something that rhymes with 'cut-up' and involves a lot more sneaking into the bad guys' lair?" Clint said, shaking his head at both of them.

"Did anyone ever tell you you're a kill-joy, Donatello?" Wade asked with a little heat.

"Not usually, but apparently you two need a grumpy babysitter," Clint shot back. "If I'd known, I would've swapped with Wolverine."

"You love us, and you know it," Kate said, waving her hand at Clint as she pulled her purple and fluffy earmuff a bit firmer down over her ears as they got closer to the facility. "Okay. Who's up for a little breaking and entering?"

"Now you're talking my language, Katie Kate," Clint said with a grin as the three of them slipped down toward the eerily normal-looking facility.

Wade reached out and tapped Kate's arm. "I know it looks like nothing special, but that daycare center over there is the highest security facility in Saskatchewan outside of a burnt-out Weapon X complex that is literally like … nothing but ash and concrete right now. No idea how _that_ happened," he said with a little laugh.

Kate started to grin. "When did you find out about the burnt-out place? Was it, oh, a little over four years ago?"

"I think so," he said, nodding slowly. "Oh!" His hands flew to his mouth. "Was that you and that sweet little blue imp out on your world tour of fraternization?"

She giggled. "Someone might have set the building on fire while we were fraternizing. It's impossible to say who. Things happen when you're destroying equipment," she said in what

was a passable German accent.

"I thought there was a disproportionate amount of claw marks on those walls," Wade said with a grin. "Would have been nice if you'd taken the intel out first though. I had to go to the offices of the old Department H for that one."

"We thought about hitting the control booth, but there were kids in trouble," she told him frankly. "Little bitty ones too. So sorry, not sorry kind of situation there."

He nodded solemnly. "Good call then."

While the two of them had been talking, Clint was watching the building and looking for any flaws in its security systems. It didn't look like much from the outside, but he could see the occasional soldier pass by a window or two, so there were definitely guards on duty, and when he got out his binoculars, he could see the wiring that ran over the windows and doors as well as the high-tech datapads at the entrances.

"Gonna need an eyeball," he said at last. "And a thumb."

"From anyone specific?" Kate asked with one eyebrow raised.

"From anyone that can go in and out," he said.

"Let me check my little black book," Wade said as he pulled out his cell phone and started checking God only knows what. "Colcord is missing," Wade said as he scrolled down further, tutting to himself.

"Oh, um. He's… gonna stay missing," Kate said, biting her lip. "He had a run-in with my very angry husband and the director of SHIELD."

Wade didn't look deterred as he nodded. "That will end badly."

"Captain America watched the door," she added, which got at least Clint to raise an eyebrow and sort of shake his head.

"Really?"

"Really. They may have taken exception to Colcord stealing K's ring."

"He what?"

"Yeah." Kate pulled a face. "He sucked."

"No kidding," Clint said, letting out a low whistle and shaking his head.

"Dr. Zira is right here in town," Wade offered, looking up from his phone and breaking into the little back and forth between the two Hawkeyes.

"Well then. I brought a few tranq arrows. Want to stage a kidnapping before our breaking and entering?" Kate said.

The two men glanced at each other and then nodded, and Kate broke into a grin.

* * *

Wade had insisted on triple- and quadruple-checking the restraints on the now very-unconscious Dr. Zira even after Kate hit the guy with three tranq arrows and Clint did his very best impression of a circus roundup tying the doctor up so that any way he might try to move to escape would be very, very painful.

Clint had what he needed to get past the retinal and thumbprint scans, so they were planning to hit the facility first, but they kept Zira trussed up and hidden away just in case they needed a second source of info. They weren't so optimistic as to think that they could get everything they wanted from just one run on one facility — and this guy probably knew where there were more.

Between the three of them, they decided that Clint was the most innocuous — Wade would definitely attract attention with or without the mask, and while Kate was good at the 'innocent, pretty girl' routine, the fact of the matter was that there were more medium-build, blonde guys in the place than pretty twenty-something girls. Not to mention the fact that Clint simply had more experience with being a thief.

So, Clint slipped down to the building in the clothes they'd stolen from Zira as the other two members of the team kept a watchful eye, half holding their breaths as soon as he stepped through the door. The little bamf that Kate had brought along with her had his own pair of tiny binoculars, his tail twitching nervously behind him.

Inside the facility, Clint wasn't surprised at all to find that the place was pretty well filled with soldiers, but the nice part about wearing the doctor suit and not a soldier's uniform was that the guys seemed to be giving him a fair bit of deference. He couldn't skirt by on that for too long, though — he was sure sooner or later someone would realize that he didn't look like any of the doctors they'd seen — and he went to the nearest window as he looked over the best way to disable the alarms.

After all, despite Wade's insistence that Weapon X was _definitely_ going to know who hit them, it would be better if, before they went in guns blazing, the bad guys didn't have time to destroy the evidence.

He glanced over both shoulders quickly before he followed the alarm system all the way back until he found the right place to snip the wire and then signalled to the other two.

"Hey, what are you—"

Clint spun as soon as he heard the soldier behind him and didn't even think about it before he had the guy in a chokehold. The guy grabbed him to flip him over his shoulder, but Clint hooked his legs over the soldier's neck as he went, and the two of them went down together, with Clint twisting at the last second to pin him, taking a better grip as he slowly choked the guy out — still trying to maintain the quiet for the element of surprise.

Wade climbed through the window first, and his eyes widened behind the mask as he placed a finger to his lips when he saw what Clint was up to, and by the time Kate climbed through as well, with her bamf perched on her shoulder, the guy was well and truly out, and Kate helped Clint to stash the guy.

"Gotta move fast," Clint muttered as the trio sprinted around the corner.

Almost to illustrate his point, the three of them ran into a group of soldiers almost immediately, and Clint and Kate pressed themselves to the walls around the corners as a hail of gunfire opened up. Deadpool, on the other hand, dove right in, fighting with a bit more fury and a few less jokes than either Hawkeye was used to seeing from him.

With the element of surprise now completely gone, Clint pulled a splodey arrow from his quiver and fired it at the knot of soldiers, who scattered at the explosion and were vulnerable to Wade's relentless attack. Kate followed it up with three and four arrows at a time, taking the soldiers out at the weak points in the armor for Wade to finish off.

Of course, this just meant that there were more soldiers to deal with, as they'd clearly heard the explosion, and Wade turned back to Kate with an obvious frown. "Can't let these baddies cover it all up before we get there, Better Hawkeye."

"If you big strong guys want to handle the big strong soldiers, I can play detective in the offices," Kate suggested, which had Wade nodding his agreement.

"Yes, yes — I think that will work," he said before he went into his best impression of a noir detective even as he mowed down a few soldiers. "She was five-foot-five and looked like trouble. A dame with legs and a body like her bow — curved in all the right places."

"I'm gonna smack you again," Kate warned, though she couldn't help but laugh all the same.

Clint gestured down the hall that was choked with soldiers. "Three rooms down, I saw a bit more security there. Why don't you try a window entrance, Hawkeye?"

"That's an excellent idea, Hawkeye," Kate agreed, and Clint grinned at her and started to lay down cover for her to run to the window she and Wade had just entered to swing out and climb across the brickface toward the office Clint had pointed out.

Clint stayed close by Kate's position and fired at any soldiers on the ground that looked like they might be taking aim at Kate, so he was a bit surprised when he heard a very loud "Nooooo!" behind him and turned in time to see Wade doing his most dramatic dive in front of Clint to take several bullets.

Clint spun and quickly took down the soldier who had fired on him with an arrow in the neck before he looked down at a bleeding but grinning Wade. "What the heck?"

"I'm a conservationist!" Wade proclaimed as if this was obvious. "Can't let them kill of the last of the majestic Donatellos!"

Clint shook his head in disbelief before he turned back to fire at another couple of soldiers on the ground from the window. "Thanks for the save, now just ... see if you can get through these guys to give Hawkeye some backup once she's inside."

"Whatever you say, Donatello," Wade said cheerfully before he dove right back into fighting the soldiers — with more fervor than before.

Meanwhile, Kate had climbed across the outside windows and was close enough to see that the big wigs inside the office were hurriedly either packing things up or destroying them. It looked like most of the records were on paper — no wonder it was hard to track them down; there was nothing to hack into — so if they couldn't find a physical record, they were sunk. She glanced at her little bamf buddy, and he nodded, closing his eyes to teleport them both inside — but nothing happened.

"Dampener?" she asked, and the little guy nodded with obvious frustration. "Must just be around the main offices. Wade was healing okay."

She tried to break the glass of the window, but it was _abnormally_ thick, so she jammed a splodie arrow into the brick beside the window and very quickly jumped off the ledge, turning as she fell to fire a grappling arrow. The explosion went off just as the rope went taut, and Kate slammed hard into the side of the building. But at least she had a way in now.

A gunshot bit the brick next to her, and she turned to see that another couple of soldiers had been drawn to her position by the explosion. She had to admit that she had a bit more "get up and go" in her as she scrambled up the rope, even though she could see Clint firing at the soldiers out of the corner of her eye.

She had just gotten her hand on the windowsill, though, when a large guy — he had to have enhanced strength at the very least — grabbed her by the wrist, clearly trying to just her off. But before he could throw her, she managed to grab onto his arm with her other hand. When he couldn't just pitch her over the side of the building, though, he switched tactics and pulled her inside through the ruined window, grabbing her by both hands to slam her in a spin into the wall that had her seriously seeing stars.

Before he could do anything else, the little bamf Kate had brought with her sank his sword deep into the guy's knee, and as he cried out, Kate kicked him right between the knees and then cracked her bow across his shoulders, sending him down in a heap.

If they'd had time, Kate and the bamf would have shared a high-five, but as it was, they only had time to turn toward the guys who were destroying the paperwork and pounce. Kate heard some insistent chattering from the bamf after she'd kicked one guy in the jaw so hard it not only sent him flying but also knocked him out — and looked up to see the little guy gleefully destroying a small dampener in the corner of the room.

With the dampener no longer making it difficult for the little guy, Kate almost had to grin as she watched him gleefully snatching papers away from the bad guys, some of which were still burning as he let out little yelps and stamped on them to put out the fire.

A few moments later, the door burst open, and Deadpool and Clint joined the fun — the three of them and the little bamf making short work of what was left, especially as Wade seemed to be particularly _vicious_ in taking down anyone who tried to destroy evidence where he could see them doing it.

Even with the officials down, they could hear more bad guys approaching, and Kate turned to the little bamf, gesturing at the piles of paperwork. "Can you 'port as much of this stuff back to Clint's as possible? Maybe get some of the others to help if they're not busy?" she asked, and the little guy nodded, wide-eyed, before he started to teleport off with stacks of paper that had survived the shredding and burning party.

Wade let out a disappointed noise when he saw how much of what they'd came for had been destroyed — which turned into a much louder groan when Clint added, "This can't be the only office."

Kate just nodded with a deep frown. "I'll stay here and gather what I can fit in my quiver — and keep the bamf safe. You guys see if you can find anything else. But if you need an evac, call me. I've got a Nightcrawler on speed dial, and we do _not_ need these guys capturing anybody, got it?"

"Your sidekick is bossy," Wade told Clint in a stage whisper.

"Not his sidekick," Kate said at the same time Clint said, "Not my sidekick."

But all the same, the two men rushed down the hall looking for any other records, while Kate hurriedly started scooping up records to stuff into her quiver. She started with those that were half-burned or charred and tried to sift through and find as much as she could even as her little bamf buddy was teleporting back and forth, little _bamfs_ echoing in the room as he brought in a few others to help.

She could hear gunfire ringing out from the floor above her and knew that the boys had found trouble, unsurprisingly, but kept right on looking through the records, papers, and reports. A cursory glance told her that, frustratingly, none of this stuff had anything to do with Logan or K, and what they _did_ have was more on the daily grind side of things than anything else, with the burned-out papers the only thing that was _actually_ helpful. What she could see from their remains had medical terminology that made her skin crawl, but it was all in fragments and pieces, frustratingly.

She heard the light _tic_ of something landing on the floor next to her, and she looked over just in time to see the grenade before — _bamf_ — she was out in the hallway, her little bamf clinging onto her arm with his eyes squeezed shut in anticipation of the explosion that sounded moments later and sent both of them sprawling.

"What about the other bamfs?" Kate half coughed out, choking on the smoke as she looked down at the little bamf, who chattered at her and patted her arm reassuringly, and she let out a breath. "Good. I'm glad they got out."

But they couldn't take too long recovering, as they heard gunshots and explosions above them as well, and the thick smoke was making it difficult to see. She only just saw the form of a soldier rushing for her in time to get her bow up and shoot him, but she didn't see the second guy until he'd managed to get an arm around her neck.

Gasping, Kate scrambled to get out of the hold, the pressure on her windpipe already worrisome even in the split second she had to respond, and she heard the little bamf chattering angrily before she saw him disappear.

It felt like an eternity to Kate as she tried to dislodge the guy, who responded by taking her in a tighter grip, and she had very nearly blacked out when the little bamf returned moments later with Clint, who didn't hesitate to shoot the guy and then kick him repeatedly for good measure to get him to release Kate even as he was bleeding.

"You got anything left in you, little guy?" Clint asked the bamf, who very determinedly nodded. A moment later, he had teleported Kate out of there, and the last thing she remembered before she did black out was Lucky bounding over to her where she was sprawled out on Clint's couch.

Clint, meanwhile, was having a hard time of it trying to convince Deadpool that it was time to leave. Wade seemed downright _upset_ at how much of their evidence had been destroyed by fire and explosions — and he wasn't stopping his advance for anything while he took out his frustration on the soldiers.

"C'mon, Deadpool, let's consolidate what we've got — question our guy. We're not gonna get anywhere here," Clint half-pleaded.

Wade cut savagely through a few more people before, finally, he let out a sigh that seemed to move his entire body from the shoulders down. "Yeah okay," he said, and Clint honestly couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for the guy at his tone.

"Tell you what; let's get back to our tied-up friend, and you can go nuts interrogating him. I've gotta get back to Hawkeye. Little bamf took her back to my place after a soldier grabbed her—"

"Somebody hurt the Katie-bug?" Wade sounded thunderous as he spun to face Clint and then immediately started to shoo him with both hands. "You — you scoot along! Do your Hufflepuppy big brother Hawkeye duty! Don't you worry about little ol' me when you got your little Katie Kate to take care of!"

"You gonna be good here?" Clint asked.

Wade shooed him even more enthusiastically. "Meet you back at your place, Hawk-guy."

Clint opened his mouth to argue the point, but in a puff of smoke, he found himself back at his own apartment with about half a dozen bamfs, an unconscious Kate, and Lucky, who was curled up beside the couch and watching Kate with his head the edge of the couch.

"Good dog," Clint said absently as he ruffled Lucky's ears on the way to check on Kate, who had some pretty serious bruising already forming at her neck. He winced and turned to the bamfs. "One of you want to go get your big brother?" he asked as he checked her over to make sure she was breathing right. "Pretty sure he'll want to take care of her."

A couple of the bamfs disappeared at his word, and Clint was just checking Kate over to make sure she wasn't hurting any worse than what he could see when he heard the _bamf_ behind him and turned to see Kurt holding Krissy and looking a bit concerned before he saw Kate and went from concern to alarm.

"Is she alright?" he asked in a tone that had little Krissy immediately a bit fussy, because she could tell something was up.

Clint scooped up Krissy so Kurt could focus his full attention on his wife. "Breathing fine, so probably nothing's broken or crushed or anything horrible. Just got on the wrong end of a soldier," he explained quickly. "She did real good for having just had a baby, though. Never would've guessed she'd been out of the game for so long," he added, sounding a bit proud.

Kurt nodded and pushed back some of the hair from Kate's face, which woke her up the slightest bit. He couldn't help but smile at her and kiss her gently as she blinked blearily at the two men in Clint's apartment.

As soon as she was halfway awake, she croaked out, "Quiver," and Kurt raised an eyebrow at that, though Clint very quickly nodded and dug into her quiver to start pulling out what Kate had been able to save.

"Were you at least able to find anything useful?" Kurt asked, still crouched beside Kate and very gently holding her hand and running his thumb over her knuckles.

"Haven't been through it yet, but they were burning their files when we got there, so some of it's gotta be worth something," Clint said before he headed over to the table with the contents of Kate's quiver to set them out along with the rest of what the bamfs had brought back to his place. "Wade's interrogating one of the docs right now to see if he can track down our next lead."

Clint shifted Krissy the slightest bit so that she couldn't reach the files as he sat down to study them, and she wrapped her little tail around his wrist as she contentedly snuggled in. Clint grinned at the tiny girl in his arms. "C'mon, Krissy. Let's get to work."


	10. I Don't Want to Be a Mutant

**Notes from robbie: Actually… Zira is a minor canon character for Weapon X; we were basically just looking for a small name to throw in. Not every named character has to be as big a name as Cornelius. There's a big cast here.**

 **But yeah, CC is right on why we picked Donatello. Because purple. The color Yes.**

 **Notes from CC: Okay well let me just stop you right there. After REPEATEDLY pointing out that we're NOT. DOING. CANON. You're missing the point. Entirely. As in … this is our story as we see it. It's not going to follow canon. We've said this repeatedly. And yeah. I know my weapon X doctors. Inside. And out. We're using less important ones … seeing as they're just starting to dig. (obviously.)**

 **And Clint was Donatello because that was the PURPLE turtle. Come on. We're not doing a personality assessment on a reptile.**

* * *

 **Chapter 10: "I Don't Want to Be a Mutant"**

* * *

Logan's birthday weekend had been an interesting one, to say the least. In light of the nasty climate that they were seeing, the little family had elected to head out and hide out to enjoy the quiet. But on the way out, Laura and Gabby had shown up — with Laura looking more stressed and concerned than Logan had seen her before.

"Where are you going?" Laura asked, the strain evident in her voice.

"Out for the weekend," Logan answered, frowning deeper when she didn't seem to relax on hearing it. "What's the problem?"

"She's afraid you're not going to come back, and she'll miss the chance to say goodbye. Again," Gabby said, though it was clear that Gabby wasn't exactly relaxed either.

Logan and K shared a look as Logan readjusted the way Elin was situated on his hip. "I don't know what to tell you," Logan said after a moment. It wasn't like he could predict the way the wind was going to blow on this one — and the fact was, he didn't think it was looking very good, all things considered.

Laura looked more distressed for an instant, though before she could get herself worked up too much further, K cleared her throat.

"If you're not set on being here, we _could_ all go together," K suggested. "Spend a weekend as a group … just a little cabin time?"

Logan smirked at her before he pulled her over to kiss her temple, and Gabby broke into a massive grin. "I think that's the best idea," Logan said. "All things considered."

"Perfect," K said. "You girls grab your bags, and we'll all head out together."

K pulled away from Logan to grab her jacket when Laura darted into her path. "You don't have to invite us," she said quietly.

"Of course I do" K replied with a little frown. "You're his daughters. And if this goes as badly as you suspect, this might be our only chance to have a birthday get-together as a group." She shrugged lightly. "I don't think this is our only shot. But that's me."

For an instant, Laura hesitated before she took an awkward step forward and then pulled K into a hug that only lasted until Gabby bounced over and joined them — trying to tackle the pair of them as Logan passed them by to load up in the jeep.

And for their part that weekend, the little group had a good time, so much so that when it was finally time to return to Xavier's, none of them really wanted to go. But when Scott called and reminded them that there was an important switch out with the Avengers, the little couple had to let out a sigh, share a kiss, and simply pack up to go.

The trip back was quiet, and Elin slept for most of it, but when they got back, the quiet seemed to simply disappear.

Bobby was watching the news as usual with his feet up and a sandwich in one hand — not really paying attention to what he was eating while the anchorwoman gave her report on a new bill being considered.

"The Senate is expected to vote on the new bill requiring all mutants to be tagged with tracking devices before they break for the end of the year and the holidays," the reporter was saying. "This controversial bill has gained support recently with the increased scrutiny of mutants, particularly those of the allegedly more dangerous varieties. The bill would roll out in what lawmakers are calling a 'priority of security' manner — with ferals and other high security risk mutants first on the list to be implanted."

Bobby scowled at the TV before he glanced over at the mansion's resident ferals and tipped his head pointedly at the television. "They're talking about you guys again. It's been pretty much nonstop all weekend — the thing went out of committee while you were gone."

"Are they still reporting on that travesty of a bill?" Steve Rogers asked as he came into the kitchen as well, the look of revulsion obvious as he glanced up at the news channel showing some of the footage from the Senate floor. It was his turn to be on rotation from the Avengers, and thus far, all he'd done was get annoyed at the news broadcasts — not that he'd had time for much more this morning.

"Nonstop coverage," Bobby told him, shaking his head.

"First time a birthday weekend has resulted in legislation," Logan grumbled to himself. "All things considered, I think Vic would have been a better option."

"If Vic was around, this thing would already be law," K pointed out as Annie scooped up Elin to put her to bed — clearly having missed her Elin snuggles.

"Yeah, well, at least there's that," Bobby grumbled as the segment on the Senate debate ended and the anchor turned it over to the next one — which was headed up by JJ. He waved his sandwich at the screen with a glare. "Oh, yeah. He's been putting out more of your Weapon X past all weekend."

"Anything interesting?" K asked. "Keep in mind lots of it is just … gone for us."

"Well, yesterday he did an entire bit on an assassination you did that. Uh ... you may now have an entire country calling for your head now that they know it was you," Bobby told her frankly.

"Can't make everyone happy, I suppose," she said with a shrug.

"Day before that was a pretty graphic interrogation of a couple U.S. citizens. Which, you know, has people up in arms because of how illegal it is. And how many nightmares it's giving 'em," Bobby reported, this time with a bit of a shudder.

K frowned a bit and looked over at Logan. "Was that mine or yours?" Logan shrugged and headed for the coffee pot.

"No tellin', but it's hard to feel guilty over something you don't remember."

"Yeah, well, it was yours, Logan, but they've been hyping one of hers today, so we'll see," Bobby said in a tone that teenagers might use to complain about chores.

When JJ started in, he had brought in a renowned specialist on torture, which, he explained, was "to help our viewers understand the situation without resorting to graphic descriptions."

The guy's name was Dr. Duncan, and he looked positively smug as he walked JJ through the information he'd dredged up on K — this time on a political assassination of a diplomat and his wife, who she had tortured for information before killing them. The guy talked about the details JJ was willing to let on the air in such a cold and medically clean manner that it was almost spooky as he detailed what the effects would be as well as why these two in particular would be so good at getting answers.

Neither feral had moved from the moment the guy had shown up on the screen, and Scott was the one that realized it first. Both of them seemed to be staring openly. K had frozen with her coffee mug halfway to her lips and simply hadn't moved a muscle, something that Scott had never seen from her in even the most dire of situations. And Logan wasn't much better — his expression one that was so openly blank that it had Scott wondering what exactly this man had done to them, especially since Laura was almost holding her breath as well. All three of them were tense — and that just couldn't be good for anyone.

JJ thanked the doctor for his frank assessment of the information before he launched into the usual tirade about how dangerous the two Howletts were, though this time, he ended with support for the bill as well as support, surprisingly, for the program itself. "This is why we need to keep track of mutants like these two. You've seen the damage they can do, the _horrors_ they can inflict. And just these past three cases — they had to cut through entire armies of people to reach their goal. Do you really think they can be stopped? Seems to me like the only ones who have been able to keep them under control are the ones who were sending them on these missions in the first place!" He paused and took a moment to set his shoulders. "Now, I'm not saying we send them straight back into this program. The program itself needs oversight and accountability to make sure _they're_ not flagrantly disobeying international and national laws. But combined with the tracking — so we _know_ where they are — with the control these people can establish over these highly dangerous mutants, and I know _I'll_ sleep better at night."

Beside him, Duncan was nodding his agreement. "It's a different world than it was decades ago," he said. "This isn't the Cold War anymore; we're not making those same mistakes."

"Yeah, decades ago, they would have had the full support they needed," Logan muttered through his teeth. "They had enough to go as far as they did _then._ "

"If the program were to be restarted, I'm sure what these agents learned in terms of methods of control could be applied for a different direction. Not the Cold War-esque missions we're reading here but more security missions. They could even help to keep us safe from _other_ dangerous mutants," Duncan continued. "If Congress re-authorized this program, with more oversight, we'd _all_ sleep sounder, even those that were involved in these programs."

The news program broke for a commercial, and the eyes of just about everyone in the room found the two ferals — who were, quite simply, staring with perfectly open looks. The expressions on their faces were a far cry from the half-disinterested shrugs the other X-Men were used to for public reports like this. This — this was more along the lines of 'we're in trouble,' and a bit of panic, at least in Laura's case.

Cap looked furious at the situation as he looked over at the Howletts. "If they keep pushing for this… how much control could they even have if they get their way?" he asked in a tone that suggested he was ready for a fight.

Logan and K shared a quick look, and to Scott's surprise, it was Logan that answered in a tone that was so reserved it had Scott holding his breath. "They had total control before any of these technical advances."

Cap's eyes flashed. "How total?"

It took Logan a moment, mostly because of the number of people around him that he flat wasn't comfortable sharing that information with. "I ah … I couldn't control my own body. At all," Logan replied frankly.

That got most of the X-Men in the room to fall both still and silent. Half of them looked surprised or scared — and the other half livid.

"They're not talking about that part on these broadcasts," Cap finally said through his teeth.

"That guy ... the doc," K said in a very quiet, even tone. "He was in the program. He ran half the experiments."

"I doubt JJ knows it," Bobby said with a frown. "Bet he's feeding JJ just the right information to drum up support."

"They're steering the public in the entirely wrong direction on this," Cap said, still with a bit of heat. "Only giving half the story…" He shook his head hard before he seemed to come to a decision. "Kate, do you still have friends on the staff for his show? Think they'd like a one-on-one with Captain America?" he called out.

"You kidding?" Kate said, shaking her head with wide eyes. "They'd sell their souls for something like that. Just pick a time!"

Cap smirked for a second before he nodded. "Right. Come on — let's set something up," he said, tipping his head as Kate, grinning, all but skipped out the door after him.

The JJ segment was still playing in the background as it returned from commercial when the door opened and Scott's nieces came skipping in — which had Bobby quickly turning off the TV with a muttered 'don't need to hear this ... it's recorded for later though' Scott's way as the two girls looked around the group of somber-looking X-Men.

"Uncle Scott, Charlie scraped her knee," Mary Beth reported. "She needs a Band-Aid."

Scott let out a sigh before he crouched down by Mary Beth. "What happened?"

"She tried to run too fast and fell over," Mary Beth said, shaking her head before she grabbed Scott's hand in hers to start pulling him. "Come on, come on, come on."

As the little girl led Scott out of the room, Leslie Ann skipped over to where Logan was with a wide sort of smile. "Guess what!" she said, looking very proud of herself. She didn't wait for him to respond. "Remember those boys who were picking on me?"

"Yeah," Logan said as he pulled himself together quickly. "What about 'em?"

"I knocked out Darrin's two front teeth at the park. We weren't at school, so I figured it was okay, and he was picking on my friends." She said all this very matter-of-factly but with a proud sort of grin.

He couldn't help but smirk at her in spite of the fact that he was honestly getting stressed at everything else. "Sounds like he was askin' for it. Did you get in trouble?"

She shook her head. "His dad came over and got upset, but _my_ dad is bigger than everybody and said Darrin was pulling on girls' pigtails, so _he_ should get in trouble and not me."

"You know why you didn't get in trouble too?" Logan asked.

"Cause I only hit him once?" she offered.

"Cause you were tryin' to help someone else," he said. " _And_ you only hit him once."

She grinned and nodded. "Yeah, well, Dad said not to do it again, but he was smiling when he said it, so I think I did good."

"You did fine, kiddo," Logan said as he gave her hair a little tousle.

She puffed out her chest a bit more. "Do you think you could show me some more stuff? I learned a lot last time," she asked.

"As long as your Dad's still okay with it," Logan said.

"Dad says it's a good idea," she said. "He wants me taking self-defense this summer anyway when school's over because I'm eleven now and he says if I'm gonna be standing up for people then I need to know how to do it right and keep myself safe too."

"Then let's head out to the back yard, and I'll show you how to throw someone," Logan said with a forced sort of smile. "Think you can throw Bobby? He likes it."

Leslie Ann sized Bobby up with her hands on her hips as Bobby grinned at her. "I don't want to throw Bobby," she decided before she added in a whisper, "But I bet I _could_."

Logan leaned a bit closer with a smirk. "I _know_ you could. Let's throw Petey instead." Peter gave him a look but grinned all the same at the prospect of playing.

"Okay." She beamed at him brightly. "I didn't want to fight Iceman. He's my favorite still, you know."

"I know," Logan said with a nod as the three of them headed out the back door.

It wasn't long at all before Logan had shown Leslie Ann the best way to throw Peter over her shoulder — and it was clear she was having a blast, especially since Peter did a different scream every time she did it, complete with sound effects when he hit the ground.

She was really getting into it and having a great time, though she wore herself out laughing pretty quickly and ended up leaning against a tree to catch her breath — then screaming in terror when the tree seemed to come alive. The branches grew out like long, leaf-covered fingers, reaching out and around her as the whole thing shuddered, mimicking her movements as she threw her arms up over her face to protect herself. And then the whole tree seemed to shake as she screamed out again.

The two men took a moment to process what was happening before both of them darted toward her, though Logan got there first to wrap her up in a hug and start to shush her. "Hey, it's alright. Calm down, I gotcha, little darlin'."

She latched onto him and buried her face in his shoulder as she kept crying, though the tree had stopped shaking — any leaves that were left were completely gone, though. "What was _that_?" she managed to gasp out, though her tone suggested she already had an idea.

"Not entirely sure," he admitted. "But it looked like you talked that tree into something. Are you okay?"

She shook her head hard, her lip trembling as she threatened to fall apart again. "I don't — I didn't do it," she said firmly.

Logan let out a sigh and looked up at Peter, who so far had been knocked speechless. "Okay, little darlin'," he rumbled out before he gave her a tighter squeeze. "Maybe we should go find your uncle."

"But… but he's gonna think...that I … that ... "

"You are, honey," Logan said. "And it's okay."

She started to cry again, quieter, with her lip trembling; she simply couldn't stop it. "But that means ... that means they're gonna put one of those things in me like they were saying on TV."

He frowned and shook his head before he tipped his face down to catch her attention. "No, honey. That's just for the dangerous ones. You'll be fine. And it's not a for sure thing yet, anyhow."

"My social studies teacher says it is," she sniffled.

"Your social studies teacher's a twit," Logan replied with a little growl. "It's not law."

"But you saw ... you saw what the tree did. What if _I'm_ dangerous?" she asked, obviously panicked. "That's what they're saying! That they're gonna get the dangerous mutants!"

He gave her a forced smile as he slowly shook his head. "Are you kiddin' me? The world needs more trees. You'll be a hero. Maybe you'll re-grow the rainforests. All by yourself."

"Maybe," she said, trying to smile for him before she took a deep, shaky breath. "I don't want to be a mutant," she admitted in a whisper, the pure terror shining through in her eyes as she locked her gaze onto Logan like she was asking him to fix it, somehow.

"I know," he said, matching her tone, though Peter didn't miss the look of sorrow Logan was wearing. "But you are what you are. No sense fighting it."

She snuggled into him for a long moment, hiding her face and trying to get a hold of herself, which only meant that Logan's expression was a lot clearer to see for Peter until she picked her head back up again. "Do you think Uncle Scott will let me be an X-Man?" she asked after a good long time.

"I'd like to see him stop you," Logan said. "You've been saying you're going to be an X-Man for a long time."

"Yeah, but I was gonna be like Miss Kate," she said.

"Well now," he said, pulling her back slightly so he could look her in the eyes, "you get to be like Scott and Bobby. With less laser face and frostbite and a helluva lot more cute."

"Okay." She sniffled and wiped her nose on her sleeve. "Are you gonna tell Uncle Scott on me?"

"No, you are," Logan said seriously. "That's the kind of thing you should be able to tell on your own. Five bucks says he'll grin and spin you around in a hug."

She giggled at that. "I like when he does that."

"Does that mean you don't wanna take my bet?" Logan asked with one eyebrow raised. "Can't join the team unless you can bet now and again."

"Yeah, but I already spent all my allowance, so I don't have five dollars."

"I'll betcha a s'more then," he said. "You win, I'll cook 'em."

"That sounds good," she agreed as she finally let him go and sniffled a few more times.

As they headed up to the house, hand in hand, Logan turned her way for a moment with a little smirk. "You know what this means, right?"

"What?" she asked.

"Means you can come to school here if you want," Logan told her. "And I'll bet Storm'd love to help you learn how to get the plants to grow better."

She broke into a wide smile. "Oh — I didn't think about that!"

"Those boys won't bother you if you don't want them to," Peter added quietly from a few paces back.

"I can't beat them up _now_ ," Leslie Ann said, looking properly scandalized Peter's way. "Uncle Scott says you can't beat people up when you have powers, because it's not fair."

"It's only not fair if you're super strong or use your powers to do it," Logan argued.

"Well... if I go to school here... I won't have to see their stupid faces anymore," she reasoned.

"That's true," he agreed as they got up to the doors, and Leslie Ann seemed to positively brighten up at the idea.

When she went through the doors ahead of him, they found Scott with both of the twins and Mary Beth, though being faced with the prospect of admitting it out loud suddenly had the bright young girl turning shy. "Uncle Scott," Leslie Ann said, a bit nervously, holding onto Logan's hand tighter in a clear attempt to hide and hold herself up. "Uncle Scott, I… I gotta talk to you."

Scott looked up from the other kids and saw the way Leslie Ann was all but hanging on Logan and tipped his head to the side for a moment as he came over. Logan gave him a significant look and very slightly tipped his head her way, though he didn't say a word.

"I, um, I sorta turned a tree alive. I mean... more than ... I mean. Trees are alive, but… yeah," Leslie Ann explained, and even though she wasn't quite saying what she meant to say, Scott caught on fast and broke into a huge, genuine smile.

Logan squeezed her hand and turned her way to give her a little smile. "You're doin' fine, punkin'."

She glanced up at Logan and then took a deep breath as she blurted out, "Uncle Scott, IthinkI'mamutant."

Scott grinned even wider. "That's amazing, Leslie Ann!" he told her as he, as Logan predicted, picked her up and swept her around in a spinning hug.

As the two of them celebrated, Logan took a step back and tipped his head Peter's way. "I'm gonna go find K. Keep the little one company if she needs it, wouldja? Scott's gonna have to talk to her folks."

Peter grinned and nodded. "Looks like we're gonna have another one in your self-defense class come January."

Logan paused, then nodded in response as he took another step backward. "Probably sooner than that, web head."

Peter waved him off as he turned back to lean against the wall and watch as Scott tossed Leslie Ann in the air and the three kids joined in the celebrating, even though they didn't quite know what was going on.

* * *

Clint had turned the TV on in the background as he and Wade sifted through the papers in front of them. They'd actually found some pretty interesting stuff already. Nothing on their snarly little friends, but there were _pages and pages_ of 'acquisitions.' A whole bunch of people — about fifty — who had been snatched from bars, from the side of roads… anytime that they were obviously alone. Homeless veterans made up most of the list — as well as one or two others who simply didn't have any family to look for them when they went missing.

 _Bamf_. Both men looked up when Kate arrived with Kurt; the two of them had just finished their classes at the institute. Krissy had her tail wrapped around Kate's arm, though Clint was there in a second to scoop up the little girl and immediately start making faces at her to earn a huge, gummy smile.

"Find anything yet?" Kate asked, glancing at the TV. The reporters were talking about Cap's announced press appearance — the second that week in which he was spilling all sorts of stories about his friendship with Logan and how much he trusted him.

"Nothing on our friends," Clint admitted with a sigh. "Looks like we hit the acquisitions department. Half these files are just talking about how they got the people they experimented on. Nothing on what they did… well... except the notes on how they died. Which are not pleasant, let me tell you."

But while Clint gave the Wagners the rundown, Wade was uncharacteristically quiet and staring at one report in particular, both fists propping up his face at the cheeks as he muttered to himself very quietly.

Kurt slipped around behind him to read over his shoulder, curious as to what would have him so quiet. "Anything worth reading?" he asked over Wade's shoulder, though he was already skimming the file in front of him.

"Maybe…" Wade slid the paper to the side so Kurt could see it better. "Have I just been reading too many of these, or is there _not_ a 'cause of death' on this one?"

Kurt took the file from him with a little frown and started to read it properly. His frown deepened as he went down the vital information, and he slowly shook his head. "No, there isn't."

"That's what I thought, but then I thought maybe… maybe I was just…" Wade popped up to his feet to look over Kurt's shoulder this time.

Kurt kept reading, and he checked the back of the file twice before he looked up at Wade. "It's Logan."

"You sure?" Clint asked, both eyebrows raised as he paused in making faces at Krissy.

Kurt was very slowly nodding as he read the fine print closer. "They tried to scribble it out, but it's the right description ... right height."

"And there's only so many itty bitty stabbing machines in the world," Wade agreed.

"There's nothing in here about stabbing, just the basic check-ins like the rest of them — but parts of the file are missing, and the name is scribbled out." Kurt looked over at Clint. "This is Logan. I'm sure of it." He moved over to hold the paper up to the light in an attempt to read through the hastily scratched out words.

"Gotta be him then," Clint agreed. "You'd know."

Kate slipped over behind Kurt as she frowned at the file. "Anything in there we can use? Names, places …"

"They apparently drugged him," Kurt said, squinting at the file. "Four times the thorazine expected. This _has_ to be him."

"That's more than we've ever had before," Clint said. "Only reason we know he was in the program is because we _know_ him. This is the first paper trail…" He trailed off and started to grin. "If we want more, we'll have to go after the docs themselves."

"Yes, but the one that signed this is dead," Kurt said as he turned to look at each of them. "Logan told me that Silver Fox killed him."

"What about that guy who was on the news with JJ?" Kate offered. "Dr. Duncan."

Kurt looked a bit more carefully at the names on the paper and tipped his head sideways. "That … might be his. I can't tell for sure."

"It's the final class in medical school — how to make sure your handwriting is impossible to read, just in case you get caught up in super super secret, no-good, rotten black-ops stuff," Wade said, peering at the paper with his head upside down underneath Kurt's arms.

"Well, this man must have passed that class with flying colors," Kurt said with a nod.

"Ooh. Hey. Hey _waitaminnute_." Wade tapped a spot on the paper in Kurt's hands as he stood straight. "That looks like an X…. and that looks like a W…." He lifted up his mask for a moment to peer at it closer. "You know what? I think that says in horrible-doctor-handwriting — I _think_ that says Weapon X."

Kurt looked closer as Wade tapped at a particularly bad scribble next to the section where the subject's name should have been. It wasn't definitive, but it was also more than they'd ever had before...

"So ... do we know where this Dr. Duncan is?" Kate asked, seeing the look on Kurt's face and recognizing the particular glint that meant he was ready to tear the world apart.

"You kidding? I started looking into him soon as he and JJ got chummy," Clint said. "He's hard to pin down, but I got a few addresses." He made another face at Krissy before he turned back to the others. "Can't just bust him, though. He's in the public eye, and it'll seem like retaliation."

"I only need to get into his personal files," Kurt replied. "A man like that would keep them close, in a safe or something that only he had access to. But he's _proud_ of his work. He wouldn't let it be destroyed."

"Safes I can do," Clint said. "You get me in, and I'll get you everything in the safe."

"If Erik wasn't in space with Alex and Lorna, this would be a quick affair," Kurt mused to himself. "You wouldn't need to get it; we could bring it to you."

"I think he was planning on coming back in time for Christmas," Kate piped up.

"Yes, Scott said Lorna and Alex were bringing the little one for the holidays," Kurt said with a nod.

"Well, we can chase that other lead in the meantime," Kate offered. "When Erik gets here in a couple weeks, we'll yank a safe — but Wade found another doctor we can raid first."

Wade nodded enthusiastically. "This would be right up your alley, Bamfmaster. This guy — this guy is basically living in a _castle_!" He grinned and threw his hands out. "Just asking for some swashbuckling heroics!"

"We'll have to see how it pans out," Kurt said distractedly, still trying to make out the notes in the horrid handwriting.

"Oooh, that's right. Got the hawkcrawler to take care of," Wade said, nodding seriously. "Right, right — don't you worry! Me and Donatello and Katie-bug can handle it."

Kurt nodded then did almost a double take. "A bamf for each of you — and bring a comm."

"You want to stay here and see if you can find anything else in this mess in the meantime?" Clint offered. "There's a travel crib in the back room for Krissy that I had for Gerry."

"I'm just wondering how smart they got between him and her," Kurt said. "If his name is scribbled out, I wonder if they didn't just wise up and not keep files for acquisitions after a while, though..." He started digging deeper into the pile. "...she said 'K' was a bookkeeping term."

Kate kissed his cheek with an affectionate grin. "I know that look. That's the look that means you're onto something. We'll make a PI of you yet."

"How high did the files go that you got?" Kurt asked. "Logan's file was seventy eight — and then there is a gap before more were brought in."

"Highest number I've seen so far is in the two hundreds," Clint admitted. "But we were looking at the older ones first — figured that's where we'd find Logan."

Kurt shook his head with a frown. "'X' is ten. And 'K' is..."

"One _thousand_ on the street," Wade said, pulling his mask back down over his face as he settled into a stance that said he was ready to go.

"That's how many they went through?" Kurt said with a glare.

"That's how many they went through _before_ her. Don't think they stopped there," Wade said, sounding more serious than Kurt had heard him.

"It was thirty years ago or better," Clint agreed. "If they're still operating ... "

"We'll see what we find when we hit the docs," Kate said. "But if we find anything that says 'M' on it, I'm gonna be _pissed_."

"Well that's what we should be looking for though," Kurt said. "Anything with a roman numeral."

"Might be digital at this point," Clint said. "But we'll find it." He ruffled Lucky's ears absently as Krissy just giggled at him and kept tapping him to try to get him to make more faces. "Think you could hold down the fort here? I'm kinda itching to find something now that we've got a lead."

"Yes," Kurt said. "I think so. If she gets bored, I'll 'port her back to the mansion. Elin calms her down. They've been staring at each other for weeks."

"Sounds like the start of a great friendship," Clint chuckled. "Lucky's real good with kids too. Getting downright cuddly in his old age."

"Logan and K aren't leaving Elin for much of anything right now," Kurt said, frowning again.

"Katie was telling me she's sitting up on her own now," Clint said, trying to lighten the mood a bit. "Careful — she'll be getting into everything soon once she starts crawling."

"She's already trying," Kurt said.

"She's already trying to _walk_ , really," Kate said with a smirk. "She gets so mad when the twins can just run around and she's stuck where she is."

"Krissy will be right behind her, I'm sure. Leading the way into trouble," Kurt teased.

"Oh for sure. She takes after her mom that way," Kate agreed with a wide smile before she kissed his cheek and grabbed the bow she kept at Clint's place. "Take care of our little princess, sweetheart. We'll be back soon."

"Come back if there's any trouble," Kurt said, looking stern.

"There's always trouble," Kate said with a little teasing smile before she snuck another kiss. "I'll come back if there's… _awful_ trouble."

"Anything less than that is just standard operations," Kurt countered.

"Don'tcha worry, Bamfmaster. We'll take real good care of Katie-bug!" Wade said, draping an arm over Kate's shoulders.

Kate rolled her eyes at him. "I take care of _you two_ ," she countered, and the little bamf who had perched on her shoulder at the prospect of leaving for another adventure giggled and high-fived her.

"You got coordinates?" Clint asked, and when Wade nodded, he gestured for the little bamf nearest Wade to check out the numbers in the merc's phone. A moment later, all three of them had teleported off, leaving Kurt and Krissy with Lucky to dig through all the rest of the paperwork — though that was mostly Kurt, since Krissy was just having a blast staring at Lucky's tail wagging back and forth and trying to track it, giggling madly the whole time.


	11. Gonna Need Another Castle Dungeon Rescue

**Chapter 11: "Gonna Need Another Castle Dungeon Rescue Party"**

"I swear to God I saw this place on 'Great Vampire Hideaways'," Wade said at nearly a whisper.

Kate and Clint shared a smirk as they looked out over the castle where Wade's intel said they'd find another Department doctor. It was dark and cloudy, too, so they both had to admit that the description was pretty fitting as a light dusting of snow started to fall and they could see their breaths.

"I'm thinking we start in the basement — or the dungeon — or whatever," Clint said with a little nod. "That's usually where the sneaky stuff is hidden."

"You could have used that advice back at the beginning of this silly thing," Wade said as he tapped Kate's shoulder.

"What ... look in the basement?" Kate scrunched up her nose at him. "Yeah, but I love climbing in windows. And not all the houses in LA have basements — that was my start as a PI."

"And you gotta use trees too," Wade said. "I saw that issue too."

Kate shrugged at him, not sure what he was on about — and knowing it was easier not to try to make sense of it. "Okay, I know how to handle castles. Just clear the stairs with some splodeys and make sure there's no dragon."

"You're not wearing a dress; there won't be a dragon," Wade said confidently.

She had to chuckle a little bit. "You know, my life has gotten so weird lately that — that actually makes sense. X-Men are weird."

Clint snorted as the three of them slipped around to see if they could find an entrance — or make one, as the case might be. After a bit of searching, they found a small, barred window that, when Kate looked through it, definitely opened up into a dungeon, though it was several feet above the dungeon floor, and they would need to lower themselves down once they got in.

Clint shot Kate a little grin as he pulled a few acid arrows from his quiver, and once those ate through the bars, they were able to shoot a grappling arrow through the little window, and Kate lowered herself inside first, sliding down the rope until she found herself in a dungeon much like the one she'd been in when she met Bastion a few years ago. Though this time, at least, she wasn't locked in.

The other two slid in close after her, and the three of them split, keeping their comms open as they searched for anything that looked like it might be helpful. The castle was, frankly, huge, so they were fairly well spread out when Kate spotted the first sign of life — a huge guy who was, she realized with a sinking feeling, unmistakably a Marauder.

"Wade," she said quietly into her comm, trying hard to keep her cool and not sound as freaked out over the comms as she was in person.

"Yes my little songbird?" Wade half sang to her

"Wade... what's the name of this guy we're going after?"

"Windsor," he said. "Like the tunnel. And the really sleazy city that isn't Detroit. Why?"

Her heart skipped a beat, remembering what K had told her when they were looking into how to keep Sinister away from her during her pregnancy. "You know that's Mr. Sinister, right?" she said in a hoarse almost-whisper.

There was a pause for a moment before Wade replied in a much less hushed tone. "You know that makes a lot of sense now?"

"Well I'm looking at a Marauder right now so just… be careful," Kate said as she pulled out a few arrows and spread them out between her fingers to shoot the guy.

"Does this count as calling home for help material?" Wade asked. "Because this guy is a gigantic pain in the—"

"Yeah," Kate said. "Yeah… I think we're gonna want to have backup." With that, she let all three arrows fly, and the Marauder went down with a shout.

She flicked her hair over her shoulder with a satisfied smile and pulled another few arrows as she nosed cautiously down the path — when there was a furious little growl past her shoulder and around the corner. And that was how Kate realized that her little bamf buddy had been snatched.

Without really thinking about it, she reached back for another few arrows and raced around the corner, completely ready to tear apart whatever Marauder had been stupid enough to grab her little buddy — but she went to a skidding stop when she saw a huge, bulky Marauder handing _Sinister_ a clear cage. She could see her little bamf inside it furiously teleporting around, but he just kept reappearing in the cage — unable to get out of it and chattering at top speed, little growls and snarls thrown in for good measure.

As for Sinister himself — she saw as she came to a stop that he… was in bad shape. Like, really bad. He was still pale as ever, but it wasn't the cold pale of the undead that it had been before. This was a pale like sickness, like a deathbed, with his eyes sunken in and obvious scars where his dramatic costume wasn't covering his skin.

He looked like he was dying.

Sinister looked up as she came skidding around the corner and tipped his head in greeting. "I don't suppose you brought any of your more useful friends along, Mrs. Wagner," he said in a rich, almost friendly tone.

"Just me and the bamfs," she said without hesitation.

He very nearly tutted at that. "If you're going to lie, at least do it convincingly."

"You're right. I didn't bring all of the bamfs. My bad," she said with a smirk, her bow still raised as she kept half an eye on the bamf in the cage.

"You didn't bring any _mutants_ ," Sinister said. "Not really."

"I do have other friends besides the X-Men," she said in a flippant tone. "And since none of us are mutants, you're not really interested, so I'll just take my friend and go, okay?"

"I didn't say that," Sinister replied. He took a step forward, never dropping her gaze, his expression one that sent shivers down Kate's spine. "Why don't you let your friends know where you are so they don't go wandering too far?"

"Hey guys," Kate said into her comm. "Book it out of here, would you? I'll be right behind you."

"Yeah, that's not happenin', Katie," Clint said in a totally unamused tone that told Kate he knew exactly what she was trying to pull and wasn't about to leave her behind.

"I said I'll be right behind you," Kate repeated as she let fly the two arrows she had strung and made a rush for the little bamf. To her surprise, rather than let the arrows hit him and then shrugging them off like he usually did, Sinister stepped aside and let a Marauder take the putty-explosive combo. He looked more annoyed than anything else — probably mad that Kate wasn't playing along when he wasn't telepathically controlling people.

"And I said that's not happening," Clint replied — though it was as he was bursting through the door with three arrows drawn.

Clint shot right through the Marauder who made a grab for Kate as she rushed for her bamf buddy, who was chattering his encouragement. She didn't get much further, though, because another one grabbed her hair and yanked hard, and when Clint swore at the guy, another three showed up to deal with him too.

Kate reached up with one hand to grab her hair closer to her head to alleviate some of the pain of having her hair pulled before she stepped in closer to the Marauder and kicked him between the knees to get her to let go, spinning back toward Sinister before she ran into a wall of muscle that was a second Marauder who hit her with a left jab that had her seeing stars. She went stumbling back a few steps into another one, who more or less trapped her in a bear hug and then pulled her arms down to her sides.

Clint, meanwhile, had stuck the first two Marauders full of arrows before the third managed to get a hand on his bow and break it in half. His little bamf buddy teleported over to his friend and frantically scrambled around the outside of the cage trying to figure out how to open it before he too got grabbed. One of the Marauders seized him by the tail and dangled him upside down — at about the same time one of the Marauders Clint had stuck full of arrows grabbed Clint around the ankle in retaliation and sent him sprawling to the ground alongside him. That gave the third guy enough of an opening to pound Clint hard enough that he was stunned, likely concussed, and easy to pin down after that.

As the Hawkeyes were being heavily restrained, with Sinister overseeing the entire event, Wade just casually strolled out of a room that looked as if there really was no other way in than the door he'd just walked out of.

"There is, like, a whole _closet_ full of Mister Sinister bodies in there," he said as he thumbed over his shoulder. "A couple of Miss Sinisters too … that I wouldn't mind taking home with me ... any hooo … what's _that_ all about?" He was half snorting, half chuckling to himself as he put his hands on his hips and assessed the situation. "Oh. Hawkeyes. Are we having a hugging party? Can I join in too?" He didn't wait for an answer before he walked right up to Sinister and wrapped his arms around him. "You're bonier than I remember."

With a tip of his head, Sinister signalled for his Marauders, who quickly made their way forward and peeled Wade off of him as he half smiled up at them.

"He had a run-in with my father-in-law," Kate said, and it was the first time in her life she'd ever looked smug about the family she'd married into. "Azazel won."

"What are you doing in my home?" Sinister asked, ignoring Kate's smug look and addressing the two men more than her.

"Well, you know how Katie is about swashbuckling adventures, and her anniversary's this weekend, so we're scouting spots," Clint said airily.

"I was under the impression that she didn't like looking for my kind of trouble — though I would like a fresh baseline," he said, finally looking toward Kate. Malice flashed in his gaze as well as a sneer that Kate knew only too well from weeks locked up with him. "How is the little demon-child so far? I'm sorry I haven't been able to stop in."

She glared openly. "She's gorgeous and none of your business. Isn't that how you ended up looking like a melting wax figure of yourself? Demon issues?"

"A temporary situation that I'm sure your _gifted_ husband has been working hard to protect against," Sinister replied. "It's no secret that he tries to keep his father away. I have faith that he'll find a way to do just that, as I'm sure you do too."

"We'll make sure you two share a cell at Rikers Island," Kate said with a sneer.

"Yes, do that," Sinister said, his tone completely dismissive. "I know my way around and _out_ of that prison well." He turned back to the other two with a far more businesslike expression. "Now. Why are you here?"

"Don't suppose you have any paperwork just… lying around from your time with the Weapon X program?" Clint asked, not expecting an answer.

Sinister frowned a bit and then nodded once. "Ah. Of course, the ridiculous legislation," he said easily. "As a matter of fact, I do. Though not _just_ of my time there." He looked at Clint carefully. "Are you on the side for or against tracking?"

"Against. Obviously," Clint said, shaking his head.

"Obviously," Sinister almost purred with a little smirk. He tipped his head as he seemed to consider them — not just the fact that they had an Avenger actively working against anti-mutant legislation but the situation generally and its implications. Finally, he seemed to come to some kind of conclusion and nodded to himself, slowly. "I'll admit I had some curiosity on how long my ferals would live if left to their natural end."

"Not that you'll live to find out. You look like you're on your way out," Kate called out.

"A temporary problem that I've faced several times before," Sinister said with a wave. "Of course, I have all the research on Logan spanning back nearly a century _._ Though I don't know what good it might do you concerning the political climate."

"That's one pretty shiny carrot," Wade called out in almost a sing-song voice. "What's the stick?"

"Samples," Sinister said. "Without the fight."

"No way," Kate spat out, but she was surprised when Wade nodded thoughtfully.

"Whatd'ya need?" he asked as if this was completely reasonable.

Sinister looked at him for a moment, clearly considering him. "Your abilities are augmented, not natural. But they might be useful, seeing as getting near the source would be … _difficult_." He took a moment longer before he took a few steps closer to Wade. "Blood. Various tissues. Bone marrow."

Wade nodded along, his hand on his chin for emphasis with every listed demand. "Right. Right. Sounds good. But money where your mouth is first. Give my Hawk-friends here what you've got, and you can have your creepy, creepy way with little ol' me," he said in a sing-song voice that didn't have the usual carefree tone.

"Wade… no," Clint said as Kate gaped openly.

"It's no big deal," Wade said with a shrug. "They did stuff like this to us all the time."

"And it was _wrong_ ," Kate said at last, finally seeming to get hold of herself.

"Not if I'm giving my permission," Wade said, tutting her way.

Clint frowned for a long moment before he looked to Sinister. "I'm with Deadpool. Money where your mouth is first. How do we know you've got actual records?"

Sinister nodded his head and called over one of his Marauders, who left the room, only to return a short while later with several long legal file boxes as Sinister was gathering his instruments.

"The oldest files are all copies, of course," he explained. "The originals are in a vault in a non-existent facility." He looked up at them. "I have precious little on the female. Such a shame I didn't find her sooner."

"Her name's K," Kate grumbled, though without much of her bite as she stared at the boxes. That was a _lot_ of information. And it could be so, so useful. It was just that the price tag...

"In a manner of speaking, yes," Sinister agreed.

Clint frowned over at the boxes for a moment. "Okay. Let the little demons take those records back to our place. We'll stay with Deadpool."

"To bring back Nightcrawler? I don't think so," Sinister said with a shake of his head. "No, you'll stay until I'm done. You're welcome to take that back with you when you go. I've got everything as digital files, but I'm sure to stop this desperate attempt to pause evolution, you'll need papers." He shook his head to himself. "I've no desire to see mutants halt their progression, as you well know."

But he didn't elaborate any further, turning his attention back to Wade — as the two Hawkeyes tried and failed for brace themselves for what was coming.

* * *

For the first little while after the Hawkeyes and Deadpool had gone, Krissy was completely content. She had her little face scrunched up in concentration as she watched Lucky's tail wagging back and forth, and Kurt had to laugh as he realized that she was trying to get her own tail to do the same thing — with limited success.

When she got tired of trying to copy Lucky, she had a couple bamfs perfectly willing to lie on their tummies next to her and giggle and cackle and make faces — and she rewarded them with wide grins as she tried to pinch their noses, tails, or whatever else she could reach.

But eventually, even that didn't seem to interest her, and as it came time for dinner, she seemed to get fussier. No matter what toys the bamfs brought her, no matter how cuddly Lucky tried to be, and no matter how much her dad pleaded with her to take the bottle, since she was obviously hungry, she wasn't having it.

So, finally, Kurt teleported them both back to the mansion, fussy baby in hand as he looked for any sign of either Logan or K. As he and Kate had discovered fairly early on, it was always easier to get Krissy to eat if she was distracted with her new best friend, after all. They really weren't surprised that she and Elin got along so well already, considering.

When he found K and Elin, they were upstairs in their room, perfectly snuggled in as Kurt and Krissy teleported in. Elin raised up to sit and stare at Krissy in her usual 'why are you crying' look when she heard the fussy little one, and Krissy actually started to calm down the slightest bit when she saw where they were.

"There you are," K said, her hand behind Elin's back as the little one sat upright. "I was starting to wonder where you might have disappeared to. It's Logan's night to cook, and he said he had something on deck for you."

Kurt had to grin at that. "I didn't mean to be gone so long — I was at the other Hawkeye's apartment," he explained. "He and Kate have been getting the team back together as of late — just on occasion."

"Is she hungry?" K asked, watching Krissy squirm in his arms. "I can go grab a bottle if you want to let them settle each other out a bit."

Kurt nodded gratefully. "Thank you. I can't seem to get her to eat right now, but if Elin can work her magic… maybe that will work."

K gave him a little smile before she kissed Elin on the top of her head and left the three of them to play. "Be back before you know it." With that, she slipped out of the room — and already, Elin was smiling mildly at Krissy.

Kurt let the two of them down to play for a while, with Krissy laid out and staring up at Elin as the older — but still somehow the same size — girl leaned the slightest bit to grin right back. He had to chuckle at the two of them and looked around to see if there was a spare toy or two he could use to play with them when he noticed the very official-looking document on the top of the dresser.

His head tipped to the side and obviously curious, Kurt checked the door once before he peeked over the paper — and fell into a deep frown when he realized what it was. These were official, legal instructions for what should happen should the worst befall his two friends — not quite a will, since this was more of a matter of 'if we are captured and lose our free will,' but the principle was the same.

He had gone completely still as he read it over — it was already signed and notarized. He wasn't sure quite what to think. They had named him as the legal guardian for Elin should the worst happen, and of course — of _course_ — he was honored. Of course he would do anything for them and for her. But the fact that they felt this was even _necessary_ , the fact that they had to even _consider_ drawing up something like this… It left him fuming.

He carefully replaced the legal document on the dresser as he crouched down next to the two little girls, falling into a deep silence as he processed it.

"Alright, _liten älva_ ," K called out as she stepped through the door with the bottle in hand — entirely silent in her approach otherwise. "It's time to stop giving your father such a hard time." She was wearing a bit of a smile as she handed Kurt the bottle. "I have some lingonberries downstairs if she's going to keep being a pain about it. She loves them."

"And she loves you," Kurt said with a soft attempt at a teasing smile. "Because you spoil her so with things she shouldn't have."

K smiled a bit wider. "But she's old enough for a little fruit. Berries are fruit."

He shook his head at K, still with that same soft smile, as he gratefully took the bottle, which Krissy took as long as long as she could still see and stare at her best friend, meaning Kurt ended up more or less sitting on the floor as Elin helped him out with the little purple elfling.

K took a few steps to the side and slipped into the chair halfway across the room and watched the little ones. "They are in love," she said softly. "It's ridiculous."

"It's genetic," he teased lightly. "A Wagner and a Howlett. How could they not be the best of friends?"

"They had no choice in the matter," K agreed.

"Of course," he said, tipping his head to the side as he looked up at K for a moment. "My little princess is partial to your entire family."

"Again, genetic. Of course."

"Yes, Kate and I likely contributed to that," he said with a shameless grin now starting to spread over his face.

"Yeah, about that … _Catholic boy._ The rumors and teasing are just waiting for the official start," K told him. "The general news about this place is the only thing that's stopped the outright teasing over Elf Number Two. Be warned."

Kurt raised an eyebrow her way and laughed quietly. "I think if you mention that to Kate, even teasingly, she'll find those running shoes you gave her," he teased. "She really has been enjoying having her bow back and spending time with her old mentor."

"Has he learned how to clean yet?" K asked.

"Oh, ever since Gerry was born," Kurt said seriously, though with a twinkle in his eye. "The place has never been so clean — and it stays that way so the little ones can come over. He's completely smitten with _all_ of them, you know."

"Well, birds of a feather, as they say," K teased.

"Perhaps it's Natasha you should be warning," he teased right back.

"She knows what she's getting into," K said with a smirk. "She's choosing it. Logan has a pool going, by the way."

"Logan has had a pool going for as long as I can remember about something or other. What is it this time?" he asked.

"Nat and Clint," she replied as the smirk stretched into a smile. " _He_ says inside a year."

"It's hard to hazard a guess with them. It seems they dance around the idea of anything for ages and then simply decide in a moment," Kurt said thoughtfully.

"Inside a year — I'm not taking that bet."

"I think it depends on if Clint gets himself into anything like the trouble he was in before. That seemed to hurry her along."

K shook her head. "He's not betting on him — he's betting on her."

Kurt had to shake his head as well. "I have to agree with you, then. Barring another missing Hawk incident, I think she'll simply want to settle into this… new normalcy." He stretched out a bit with a smirk. "Besides, she's been gone for a while — an undercover mission, Clint said. It's hard to have children when you are on the opposite ends of the world from each other. Not everyone can teleport like I can," he teased.

"I think Nat's here more often than you realize," K said. "She just doesn't announce her presence all the time."

"Where's the fun in that?" he asked with a grin.

K leaned forward a bit. "I tend to agree with her," she told him quietly.

"Then you're missing out as well," he said with a light shrug.

"I don't know if you noticed, but when I make an entrance — _it's usually a problem._ "

"Only if you are John Jonah Jameson," Kurt teased. "I think he's still recovering from your grand entrance on his show."

"Well, he's safe. That's not very likely to happen again."

"All things considered, I can't blame you," Kurt said, losing some of his teasing tone now as he leaned back with a sigh.

She watched the girls for a moment with her eyes narrowed slightly. "I can't believe they're sending out those jackasses as experts."

"Well, you do have the good Captain America running the circuits lately as your own counterpoint expert," Kurt said.

"He shouldn't have to do that," K said with a little shake of her head.

"He cares for his friends — and believe me, I don't think any of us could have stopped him once he saw the piece with Dr. Duncan," Kurt said, the frown pulling at the corners of his mouth.

"He's not a medical doctor, you know," K replied. "Or a psychologist. He's just a world class sadist."

Both of Kurt's eyebrows were raised, but he hardly sounded surprised. "That … sounds like them," he said, almost wearily, though he couldn't help but think of Kate out there with Clint and Deadpool actually searching out those 'doctors' that had been in the program.

They had fallen into a bit of silence when one of the bamfs teleported into the room, looking absolutely frazzled and wide-eyed. He was half hyperventilating as he broke into a string of fast and nearly disjointed 'bamfs', tugging on Kurt's arm and shaking the slightest bit.

"Go ... deal with … whatever that's all about," K said easily as she got up and made her way to sit on the floor across from Kurt. "I'll get the girls down to dinner so they can continue their love fest while we eat. I'm bringing you down anyhow."

Kurt nodded and very carefully handed Krissy to K before he teleported back to Clint's apartment with the little bamf, who was more or less attached to Kurt's arm in half a hug and still clearly upset. And when Kurt arrived, he could see why.

Wade was stretched out on the floor, obviously badly hurt, and both Hawkeyes were seated on either side of him looking pale and wide-eyed and, Kurt could see as Kate looked up to meet his gaze, simply _furious_.

But they were also surrounded by bankers boxes that looked to be full of files, and the other two bamfs were sitting on one of the boxes and all but holding onto each other.

"What happened?" Kurt asked, simply taking in the scene.

"That lead we got? Took us to _Sinister_ ," Kate said, her breath coming out in a hiss as she said the man's name.

Kurt froze for an instant as his heart skipped a beat before he got his steam back all in a rush of anger. "I thought you were going to 'port out if there was trouble," he said as he made his way closer, cautious of Wade, but concerned for Kate.

"Would've if we could've," Clint tried to assure Kurt. He was looking just as thunderous and pale, though his voice was heavy with obvious shock.

"Hey, I'm _fine_ ," Wade half rasped out. "Got what we came for, right?"

"You're not fine, you idiot," Clint said, a bit sharply. "That was just… that was... "

"First time he's seen Sinister… working," Kate explained to Kurt with half a glance over at Clint.

"Did he harm you?" Kurt asked.

"Not me," Kate assured him, before she gestured at Deadpool. "Wade, on the other hand, futzing _volunteered_ , you moron."

"Hey!" Wade barked. "We got Logan's files. That's what we went for, right? The files? And the big … _freaky_ big list of doctors."

Kate's sharp gaze softened a bit, and she let out a sigh before she leaned down to kiss Wade on the cheek. "Yeah, but you're still a moron," she told him with obvious affection before she looked up at Kurt to explain. "Wade made a deal with Sinister. Who, by the way, definitely came off worse from dealing with your dad's spell. He's trying to get his healing back ... so, he wanted some, um, samples from Wade."

"And he did this in exchange for _files_." Kurt looked a bit leery.

"Yeah, we weren't so sure about it either," Clint admitted. "But… way I read it, and this is just one Hawkeye's opinion, but ... way I read it, Windsor or Essex or whatever his name is ain't a big fan of the tracking idea either. Hard to snatch up samples when there's a big blinking neon light on your test subjects, not to mention the whole creepy, weird scientific angle of them getting in the way of 'progress' or whatever." He shrugged. "At least… the way he talked about the 'political climate' was interesting. But like I said. One Hawkeye's opinion."

"He probably just thinks it will make mutants less likely to continue to evolve," Kurt said. "Interferes with the natural order of things if the mutants are wary to go anywhere or do anything or live their lives." He looked toward the stack of boxes and then back to Clint. "But it's not like him to hand over any more than is necessary. At least, he's never given us more than bare bones in the past."

"Well, we'll go through and see what he gave us," Clint said. "And bring back Thor and Natasha to play with him if he skimped," he added with a bit of a glare.

"He said it was just copies anyway," Kate supplied. "He's still got the originals and digital files, so… he really hasn't lost anything giving us this. And he gained samples from Wade and… maybe…" She paused and bit her lip.

"Kate."

"I dunno, it seemed like he was trying to… ask us to get your dad taken care of for him," Kate admitted.

"Or he is under the impression that only samples freely given will do him any good," Kurt replied.

"I hate magic," Clint muttered, shaking his head. "And I hate that creepy guy. You guys've been dealing with him for _how long_?" He made a face. "Avengers don't have to put up with this crap."

"Some longer than others," Kurt replied. "He's been a thorn in Scott's side his entire life."

Clint let out a low whistle and shook his head. "I could use a beer. Could you use a beer? I could use one," he said as he headed for the fridge.

"I could," Kurt agreed. "But we should get back. You're welcome to join us, Clint. Logan's cooking tonight. K said it was something he had in mind for me." He couldn't help but smirk a bit at that.

"That ... is really tempting," Clint admitted. "But I think I might stay here and keep an eye on Deadpool."

"Pizza for your beer then?" Kurt asked.

"That's the plan," Clint agreed, already headed for the phone after he tossed Kurt a can from the fridge. "Whatcha want, Wade? The works?"

"I want whatever the heck they're having," Wade muttered with his eyes closed. "I didn't know Wolvie could _cook._ "

"I can cook something — probably not what they're having, but I _can_ cook," Clint said a bit defensively.

"He actually can," Kate whispered to Wade in a conspiratory tone. "I don't know where he learned. But if you can get him to make you dinner, it's actually _amazing_. He's just too lazy to do it very often."

"I don't want to wait that long," Wade admitted. "And he has like … half of a crappy six pack, two partly eaten containers of old Chinese food, and what I think … used to be a banana in the fridge."

"Like I said. Lazy," Kate said with a smirk Clint's way.

"Do I come to your house and insult you, Katie Kate? No. No I don't," he shot back, rolling his eyes before he dialed the number for pizza.

"We'll come back later and help sort through all those boxes, okay?" Kate offered. "And _if_ there are any leftovers, we'll bring them. There's usually not, but _if_."

"I'll make _sure_ you get something," Kurt promised.

Wade grinned at him crookedly from his spot on the floor. "Knew I could count on you, Bamfmaster."


	12. Erik Leaves for a Few Months

**Chapter 12: "Erik Leaves for a Few Months and THIS is What Happens"**

Kate and Kurt had a suitcase full of swimwear and clothes for much warmer weather for the long weekend they planned to take for their anniversary — though Kate had been a bit surprised when Kurt suggested they let Logan and K babysit Krissy instead of taking her with them. Not that she minded the time alone with her gorgeous Elf; he just seemed to have an ulterior motive.

Though when she questioned him on it, and he admitted to her that he'd found the legal guardianship paperwork… she very quickly and loudly joined the 'let the ferals watch the baby' club.

"She totally loves you, so she shouldn't give you any trouble," Kate told K as she was getting ready to leave.

"I'm really not worried about it, but thanks for the vote of confidence," K said with a little laugh. "She'll be fine. Have fun."

"You too," Kate insisted with a little grin. "Try not to teach her any swear words while we're gone. I know she's little, but knowing you two…" She grinned a bit wider.

"It'll be in Japanese if we do. You know … compromise," K told her as she picked up Krissy and tickled her, resulting in squeaking giggles from the little elfling.

Kate rolled her eyes before Kurt teleported in with a wide grin to snag her around the waist. "Are you ready to go, _liebling_?" he asked as he gently kissed her forehead. "Or are you still going over the list of things K already knows about our _kleine Prinzessin_?"

"Can't blame me for worrying over our princess," she shot back with a little smile as she wrapped her arms around his middle and pulled herself closer. "All those months of you being overprotective must have rubbed off on me."

He gave her an impish grin before he kissed her properly and then looked up at K. "We'll see you in a few days," he said simply.

"Take your time," K said. "She'll be fine."

"I know she will," he replied before he teleported the two of them off to a hidden atoll for some privacy and a break from everything that was going on around them.

Kate had to laugh when she realized that he'd brought them right to the water's edge; she could feel the waves gently lapping around their feet. "You — you got my socks wet," she said, poking him in the center of the chest.

"Then you should take them off," he replied with a troublemaking grin.

She matched his grin for a second before she flat tackled him into the water with a cry of, "turnabout!" that had him laughing as both of them were soaked through to the skin when the waves crashed over them.

When the wave subsided and they both caught their breath, Kate hooked her arms around his neck and gave him her broadest grin as she pushed her own sopping hair out of her face. "You're soaking, fuzzy Elf. Soaking wet. You really should hang out those clothes to dry."

"That's a fine idea," he replied with a little laugh. "Happy Anniversary."

" _Frohes Jubil_ _ä_ _um_ ," she replied before she wrapped him up in a long and very tender kiss.

* * *

Scott and Annie were driving back to the mansion after visiting with Annie's sister and her family. Leslie Ann had gotten over her fear of telling anyone about her powers pretty quickly, so visits to the family now consisted of the enthusiastic little girl trying her very best to grow flowers for her mom and sister — and her dad had a miniature rose pressed into his wallet from her as well that he was proud to show off to anyone that asked about his little girl.

So everyone was in a fairly good mood on the drive back, including the twins, who each had little wreaths of flowers that their Aunt Rachel had made for them out of the flowers Leslie Ann grew and were having the time of their lives comparing their wreaths to each other.

But as they came closer to the mansion, Scott's good mood slipped when he spotted a group of kids near the wall that ran along the road. The kids took off when they saw the car approaching, and the headlights lit up the colorful and vulgar graffiti.

Annie let out an 'oh' when she read some of the words painted on the walls and then crossed her arms over her chest. "Someone oughta wash their mouths out with soap usin' words like that," she grumbled unhappily, though Scott was settling into a glare as they drove past, which only deepened when he got to the incredibly unflattering depiction of Logan and K in full snarl with the word 'animals' spray painted over them.

Annie glanced over at Scott and put a hand on his arm. "We... We should find out… I can call those kids' parents and give them a proper lashing, make them scrub it off with their own two hands—"

"I got it," Scott told her, though he was speaking through his teeth. "It's nothing new. It's ... just make sure the twins get ready for bed, and I won't be too long. I'll be back in time for the bedtime stories, I promise," he added, trying to soften his tone, though she could see just by looking at him how livid he was.

Annie let out a little sigh but nodded all the same. The two of them fell into silence for the rest of the ride up the driveway, as the twins, blissfully unaware of anything wrong, simply jabbered back and forth at each other and giggled over their flower wreaths.

Scott dropped the three of them off right at the front door and then turned back around to simply blast the offending graffiti off the wall with a fine beam — while the rest of the Summers family came inside to find that Logan and K were half asleep, each of them with a zonked out baby girl in their arms as they sat in front of the fire.

Charlie giggled on seeing the adorable scene, but Chance shushed her. "Shh. They sleepnin," he explained in what he thought was a whisper as he put his whole hand over his mouth to add extra emphasis to his shushing.

Annie had to smile at both of her little ones as she took them by the hands and led them up to their room, getting both of them changed and ready for bed before they started to ask for their dad.

"He's on his way back to read you stories," she promised as she tucked them both in. "Just give him a few more minutes."

"Gone fightnin?" Charlie asked curiously.

"No, sweetie," Annie said as she gently kissed her little girl on top of the head. "He just had to take care of something outside."

"With Uncle Noh?" Chance asked.

"No," Annie said. "He's just … checking on some things. Don't worry about it."

Both of the twins glanced at each other, and some kind of understanding passed between them before Charlie nodded seriously at Annie. "Otay," she said.

"Why don't I read you the first story?" Annie offered, settling into the space between their two little toddler beds as she opened up the Bernstein Bears and got started.

Scott came in about halfway through the second Bernstein Bears book and took over for Annie, though once he was there, neither Chance nor Charlie stayed in their beds, instead crawling up into his lap to give him little snuggles and kisses until they both zonked out with their heads on his chest, refusing to leave at all — and when Annie peeked in a while later wondering where her husband was, she had to laugh when she saw that he'd fallen asleep too.

* * *

When Erik returned to the mansion, he was in the best mood he'd been in for decades. After spending months with his daughter and his granddaughter, he was positively glowing — and the fact that Tyler had healed him before he left meant that he was also more relaxed in general.

What's more, he could hear the twins shrieking and giggling the second he opened the door, and they came tumbling out of the hall together, playing tag and very nearly zipping right past him before Charlie noticed him and redirected her brother. "Play tag Ewik?" she asked, completely skipping past the fact that he'd been gone for so long.

Erik broke into a wide smile at that. "I'm afraid you're much too fast for me," he said.

"Tha's otay. Play later," Chance said with a shrug as he grinned and 'tagged' his sister. "Tarly's it!" he declared before he sped off giggling, and Erik had to laugh at her frustrated expression as she tore after her brother to try and get him back.

He headed into the kitchen for breakfast, as he hadn't yet eaten that morning, and only smiled wider when he saw the two little girls in K's arms, both of them grinning at each other. "Good morning," he said with a pleased grin at all three of them.

"Welcome back," K said in return as she slipped Elin into her chair and readjusted Krissy in her arms. "How was space?"

"Far less tumultuous than the last time I was there," he said with a little chuckle. "Unless you count the tumult of Corsair being scolded by his own son in matters of family."

"Damn Summerses," K muttered with a smirk. "Or so I'm told."

"Living in a house with those delightful twins? I can't see how you can subscribe to that," Erik teased lightly.

"Oh, well they're only half Summers," K countered with a grin.

He laughed as he made himself some tea and put a few pieces of bread into the toaster. "And where is everyone else this morning — or did they leave you with all the little ones?" he asked, still smiling.

"I've got Krissy until Kate and Kurt get back — little anniversary celebration," K explained easily. "She wants Elin more often than not anyhow, so … it'll work for now."

"They're already the best of friends?" Erik laughed and shook his head. "I'm somehow not surprised. Watch those two — they'll be trouble together, I'm sure."

"They do have a legacy to live up to," K agreed.

"I didn't realize Nightcrawler and his lovely Hawkeye had been married for so long already," he said as he poured himself some tea and came to sit down at the table with his tea and toast.

"You know how it is," K said as she settled Krissy with her bottle. "Time has a tendency to slip past."

"That's entirely true," he agreed with a bit of a sigh before he noticed the newspaper K had been reading earlier that morning with Logan. "Do you mind?" he asked, motioning toward the paper. "I've been out of touch lately, as it were."

"Help yourself. We're kind of zipping through it more often than not lately," K said with a little wave.

Erik raised an eyebrow at that, especially when he noticed one of the front page headlines was about another leaked mission run by 'the dangerous ferals in the Weapon X program,' as the article described them. His smile disappeared rather quickly as he started to read, though he did manage to reply with a, "I take it things like this have been business as usual?" that sounded more like an accusation directed at the newspaper than a question for K.

"Well, yeah. More or less," she said in response.

Erik's frown deepened at that, and he was engrossed in the newspaper as a full-on glare settled over his entire body language. When Bobby arrived and went to turn on the news as usual, he paused and looked a bit surprised to see Erik there. "When did you get back?"

"This morning," Erik replied with a wave and a look that clearly indicated he didn't want to be bothered with conversation as he reached the second page of the newspaper to read about the debate raging in the Senate over the latest proposed anti-mutant legislation.

"Can I interest you in anything more substantial than toast?" K asked when she saw the look on his face.

"Not at the moment," he said, shaking his head the slightest bit — he hadn't taken a single bite of his breakfast anyway as he poured over the contents of the newspaper.

It didn't help either that the newscast Bobby had turned on was at the 'top of the hour,' meaning they were going over the breaking news before they would turn it over to panelists like JJ.

"Our top story this morning — the program that has been so talked about in the news lately over its handling of feral and _other_ dangerous mutants has been revealed to have a shocking secret origin that goes back to the 1930's. Captain America himself was the first of what is now referred to in the program as a 'numbered weapon'."

"That's …that's just not right," K said in a low tone. "He's not a mutant. Why the hell …"

"He's been hitting back," Bobby said with a frown as he turned up the volume a bit.

"Yeah, but … _Captain America?_ Dangerous? Please. The man's a sweetheart in every sense."

The broadcast had pulled Erik's attention from the newspaper, and he let out a long sigh that seemed to end in an even deeper and angrier glare than before. "The same could be said of many living under this roof. And yet—" He tapped the article about the legislation with one hand. "This still happens."

"This is crazy talk though — they practically worship him." K shook her head to herself as Krissy finished her bottle, and K picked her up to try and get her to settle down.

But as the broadcast went on, it was clear that both JJ and his guest panelist weren't pulling any punches.

"We have to acknowledge, first and foremost, that this man is a war hero — a brilliant strategist and an asset to our forces during the fight against tyranny and the Nazi threat decades ago," JJ said, and it seemed that, for once, he was the more reasonable of the two in his panel.

"Oh, absolutely," agreed his panelist with a smile that didn't fit his face or his tone. "Keep in mind, though, that this was in the early days of the program, and it was a stroke of sheer luck that they happened upon exactly what they were trying to do. They enhanced his abilities, turned him into the perfect PR machine — and it's clear from the records they wanted to do more. He was designated Weapon 1. It's just a shame the original formula was lost and the program had to resort to turning to other, less human options for finding soldiers to live up to that legacy — an impossible task, really. Particularly considering the source material they were working with."

"Yes, I'm sure if the formula hadn't been lost, there would have been others to follow in his footsteps — and with almost a century to perfect it, imagine what they would have looked like today," JJ mused.

"We can see a bit of that," his panelist replied. "Purely accidentally, of course. Don't fool yourself: Captain America was meant to be an assassin and a strategist for a war we're no longer fighting, but here he is, a walking relic, a reminder of what the program was founded to do."

"I don't know that I've heard his legacy described quite that way before — assassin and strategist," JJ said thoughtfully.

"Oh, make no mistake: those missions you've been reading about on air would likely have been assigned to him during the Cold War. You read about heroics in World War II, and it's all very romanticized, but the truth of the matter is that there were real mad men out there that he was sent to kill back in the forties — and he went through just as many armies to do it. It's just that the window dressing looks a little different in the 40's than in the 60's, 70's, and 80's."

"Well, we were at war," JJ said, again sounding more reasonable. "These missions—"

"Often prevented wars or kept regions from destabilizing," the panelist finished for him. "You read about all the things this program did — or the CIA or anybody else at that time. Do you honestly think that if Captain America hadn't been frozen in time, he would have been living a civilian life? You can see him right now — he's out there with other superpowered beings. The man was _created_ to fight, and that's what he's still doing now. It's just a lucky coincidence for him from a PR standpoint that he accidentally slept through some of the more _questionable_ decades of our government's decision-making concerning assassinations and the like."

The entire kitchen was silent as they watched the exchange and as the two people on the screen delved further into Captain America's record, looking through some old assassination missions, things that he had run with Logan that, in the current climate, sounded much more treacherous than what was in the history books. It wasn't until they broke for commercial that anyone but Krissy and Elin had made a sound, and even then — it came from outside the kitchen.

"It's patently ridiculous!" came the unmistakable, half-shouted voice of Captain America.

"When has that ever stopped him before?" Logan;s voice answered. "I think this makes you an X-Man."

"This isn't a joke, Logan," Cap returned with a bit of heat.

"I know," Logan replied, sounding a bit weary. "I just can't believe they found a way to drag you into the mud with me."

Cap was shaking his head as he pushed open the door to the kitchen, still looking absolutely furious. "You know I don't mind going to bat for you — or anyone who's getting trashed like that when you haven't done a thing wrong. And I don't mind getting mud thrown at me, either. What I _mind_ is the idea that I'd ever go along with what that program turned into!" He had his hands clenched into fists and looked like he wanted to hit something.

"Yeah, because I _wanted_ to do that crap," Logan said so dryly that it made Cap stop in his tracks. "If you'd have been there — you'd have done it, like it or not."

For a long time, Cap frowned at his old friend, his jaw working, until he let out a weary sigh. "Never been glad to have been on ice for so long," he muttered, though he still looked furious. "Guess I'm lucky all they have on me is 'could haves' beyond what we did in the war."

"Just back off. Or they'll make somethin' up if they have to," Logan told him. "You're only gettin' dragged down because you tried to stop it."

"That's not going to happen," Cap said, some of the fire returning to his gaze. "You know that — I'm not going to back down from a fight, especially when they're _wrong_."

"Can't say I didn't warn you," Logan answered.

"And I appreciate the warning, but right now, the best thing you can do to help me is set me up with something to hit in that Danger Room of yours," Cap said. "The way I'm feeling, I doubt a meeting with Jameson is going to go well."

"That I can do," Logan said with a nod before he glanced toward Erik and K and changed direction to steal a quick kiss from his wife. "Anything special you got in mind to beat down?"

Cap was still glaring, but the smallest of smirks crossed his face for a moment. "Kate told me there's a program that never fails to pull her out of a bad mood."

"That's because she's a goofball, but if you wanna try it — I'll set ya up." Logan looked up at Cap as they decided to head out — mugs in hand. "Of course. It's gonna be recorded. Scott's policy about non-members. Or somethin'."

"As long as you don't leak it to the press and I end up seeing myself punching ... whatever it is Kate's got lined up."

"Me? I can hardly operate my phone," Logan said in a dry, sarcastic tone. "Come on, I'll _try_ to work the highly advanced half-Kree system in the basement for ya. Don't you worry yer little spangles off about leaks."

Cap had to grin and chuckle out a bit of a laugh at that as they headed down to the Danger Room together.

The other occupants of the kitchen were glad for the reprieve of entertainment watching Logan and Cap together, but it wasn't long before they were back to watching the second half of JJ's broadcast — which had focused on more of the same in attacking the program, this time with a particularly grizzly account of a massacre Sabretooth had committed during a mission run.

"Well this is just fabulous," K said, sounding truly depressed. "The gang's all here."

"How ... I'm not sure I understand how quickly things have changed," Erik said in a tone that said he was only just reining in his temper. "When I left, these documents were highly classified — this kind of thing would be blacked out for international security reasons."

She sighed heavily before she met his gaze. "The short version is that the Kree tried to pin the war on me for killing their Accusers," K said. "They were trying to get Noh and me to go down for the whole thing. They accused me of hiding, so I came out to defend myself. And in the process, I had to try to explain _why_ I don't have a name on record, since trying to skirt that would have me locked up in a heartbeat. This — this is them retaliating for telling the truth. They're leaking out what _they_ want — how they want it portrayed — and since they're the ones that know _everything,_ and they're the ones that have the footage to back up their claims ... we have no defense. At all."

"So they admit to their atrocities while claiming it was the fault of mutants they had enslaved," Erik said, his eyes flashing.

"Not exactly," she said. "They're trying for the public grab, surprisingly. They're claiming that the measures they're pushing for in Congress aren't _enough_ and that the two of us, _specifically_ , should be handed over to them — since they know how to control us. And they're doing it all openly."

"Let them try," Erik said with a glare, "and I will _openly_ show them their folly."

Bobby looked over the top of his coffee mug with a slightly wide-eyed expression Erik's way and seemed to be trying to think of something to say to smooth out the situation before they had a full-on supervillain problem when a _bamf_ echoed in the kitchen and Kate and Kurt arrived, both grinning from ear to ear, back from their vacation.

K glanced their way and gave them both a soft sort of smile as Krissy slept on her shoulder. "Have a nice trip?"

"Oh, very much so," Kate said with a wide grin and a girlish giggle that only turned the grin on Kurt's face into something slightly more impish. "Thanks for watching Krissy for us."

"I hope she wasn't too much trouble for you," Kurt said, his arms still around Kate's waist as she tried to head for coffee, even if he didn't let her leave until she kissed him again. "Though I doubt she was any hassle — she loves your whole little family so much."

"Yes, and both girls are ready for naps. Snuggling later. Right now? RIght now, you need to go to the control booth of the Danger Room. Like — _now._ " K was giving them both a very significant look and slipped into an incredibly thick Russian accent. "Don't wait 'round, bro. You miss crazy spangles if you wait, crazy broad bro."

Kate turned to K with wide eyes before she broke into a delighted laugh, and Kurt grinned at both of them for a moment before, once more, the two of them vanished in a puff of smoke to go and watch the show as Cap took on Kate's simulation.

"At least somebody around here is having a good day," Bobby joked lightly, still with half an eye on Erik.

Erik let out the slightest of breaths. "And they should continue to be so happy," he said, still with the glare firmly in place, but a little less biting — it was hard to be too angry seeing genuine happiness. "That anyone would threaten the stability of any of the young families here…" He looked toward Elin in particular and then to K and Krissy.

"Yeah, well..." K agreed mildly before a quick subject change. "Want to help me put them down for their naps?"

The glare settled out substantially, since Erik truly didn't have any response for that but a surprised smile. "Of course," he said. "I'd love to help."

She tipped her head toward Elin, who had her arms up for someone to pick her up. "Follow me."

Erik's surprised smile started to take over the rest of his expression almost without him meaning to as he scooped up Elin, and she gave him a sleepy sort of smile, which only melted him further. He absently readjusted her and smiled down at her as he followed K out of the kitchen.


	13. Not What We Wanted For Christmas

**Chapter 13: "Not What We Wanted for Christmas"**

Annie had drifted off waiting for Scott to come back from reading the twins their bedtime stories and putting them to sleep, so she hadn't noticed the fact that he hadn't come back to bed until she woke up sometime in the wee hours of the morning when she thought she heard Charlie crying. She checked on both of them — but it had just been a dream, and Charlie and Chance were both deeply asleep. But there was no Scott asleep on the floor between them as sometimes happened when he fell asleep reading to them.

She pulled on a robe and some slippers and headed down the stairs, wondering if he'd gone for a late-night snack or a late run or perhaps a late simulation in the Danger Room — any of those were possible if he couldn't sleep, and he was having more and more nights like that lately.

She did, in fact, find him in the kitchen, but he looked like he had just come in from a jog, and he was filling up a water bottle only to immediately drink most of it. She wasn't surprised to see that the news was on as well — as the vote had gone late into the night after an unsuccessful filibuster to try and hold it up and prevent the voting from taking place until after the holidays. A few politicians like one Misty Cleary from South Carolina had been arguing against the bill, but nothing seemed to be stopping its progress. Though Annie had put Cleary on her Christmas card list all the same.

With a heavy sigh, Annie slipped over to where Scott was and wrapped her arms around him from behind, resting her head in the space between his shoulders for a moment. She held him close without saying anything as the very quiet 'yay's of the votes kept pouring in over the television.

When she did finally speak up, it was in her quietest whisper. "What can I do?" she asked. "You and the other X-Men ... you have plans for fighting Sentinels. You know how to fight _that man_. Tell me what the plan is for something like this so I can _help_."

"Without some way to prove that they weren't in control of themselves, or to prove how they were manipulated..." Scott shook his head. "We haven't had much luck fighting legislation. All we _can_ do is to hope it doesn't pass the house. Fight it in the courts as unconstitutional if it does. But it'd be an uphill battle."

"Well. You're used to those," she said, holding him a bit tighter as she tried to go for a tease. "You had to convince my dad to let you marry me." When that didn't get anything more than the slightest of smirks out of him, she sighed and grabbed him around the waist to turn him to face her. "You've fought legislation before — did it keep you up like this then too?" she asked as she stepped into him and laid her head on his chest.

He drew in a deep breath and held it for a moment. "If they can get this through, the very first thing they'll do is come in — full force — and take Logan and K." He swallowed hard; the preparations he'd been going through with Logan were really what had been weighing on him. "If they get those two ... they _will_ send them here to end the X-Men."

"Then we can't let them have Logan and K," Annie said simply.

"He told me how to stop them," Scott said quietly. "He wants me to run it on a sim, but—"

Annie looked up at him and could see the pain clearly written there before she very gently reached up to run a hand through his hair and kiss him. "You didn't tell me that," she said softly. "I didn't know things were that bad."

"They're not yet," Scott told her. "But Logan … has always said that it would be easier if I practiced. But I'm trying to find a way to not have to kill him."

"You won't have to if they can't take him," she reasoned. She gestured toward the TV, where the vote tally had already passed the required 50 and so was now more of a formality than anything else. "My daddy always says you can lose a battle without losing the war. We're not out yet, Scott. I know we're not. Because I know you won't let them take those two away from their beautiful little girl."

"I don't know that they would take _just_ Logan and K," Scott told her with a deep frown. "Last time they came…" He took in a breath. "Last time, they came, Tyler overheard them saying they would bring in the little ones too."

When Annie looked up again to see that Scott was entirely serious, her eyes widened, and she took the slightest of steps back so she could see him better and so he could see the look of fury on her face. "We _can't_ — We _CAN'T_ let them get their hands on — we just can't — Scott, if they touch one hair on that little girl's head, I'll go into that program and tear it down _myself_!"

"That's what we're trying to stop, Annie. We're trying to keep it from getting that far," he said, finding himself the one reassuring _her_ as he pulled her back into a hug that, until the moment a soft _bamf_ echoed in the kitchen, was entirely warm and private.

Scott and Annie both looked up as Kate, looking very well-worn and slightly singed. She looked just as surprised to see the two of them there as they were to see her, and for a moment, she blinked at them before her little bamf, who had clearly brought her back to the mansion, poofed away and reappeared by the coffee.

"What're you two, um, doing up so late?" Kate finally managed to ask in her best effort at nonchalant.

"What are you doing smoking in the kitchen?" Scott countered.

Kate glanced down at her uniform and tried to brush off some of the ash and soot. "Uh ... well... I was out with Clint and Deadpool, and the building sort of caught on fire…"

"What are you doing with Clint and Deadpool, exactly?"

She winced with one eye closed. "Maybe… exactly what you told me not to do?" she said, then quickly added, "But we're actually making really good progress getting files from the Weapon X days! We're _really close_ to being able to tie it all in. Just… need a little bit more data."

Scott stared at her for a moment, torn between being upset with her for poking Weapon X when he had in fact told her to back off… and wanting to know what it was she'd found. Curiosity won out in the end, and he asked, "How close are you? What have you got?"

Kate grinned and brushed off a little more soot and ash as the bamf popped back over with her coffee cup. "We've pretty much filled Clint's apartment with paperwork. We've got enough to prove _how_ they did everything. We're just missing something that will prove _who_ they did it to… and something that will prove they're still operating and this isn't just some defunct Cold War crap."

"You've filled…" Scott stared at her for a moment longer. "How long has this been going on?"

"Oh, since right after my horrible interview with JJ?" Kate said, scuffing the ground a bit.

"Show me."

Kate glanced at the bamf, who grinned, giggled, and latched onto Scott's arm. A moment later, he found himself in Clint's apartment — where he was surprised to find not only Clint and Deadpool going through the newly acquired stack of papers but also Kurt and Natasha, with Krissy completely asleep in Natasha's arms as she thumbed through a stack of files on the couch. Kate appeared a few moments later with the coffee from the mansion — which had apparently been her assignment in the first place.

"When were you going to pull me in on this?" Scott asked with a frown.

Kurt looked up at him and let out a sigh. "We thought it might be better if the more visible X-Men like you and I weren't seen to be going after Weapon X," he said in a tired tone.

"This is exactly the kind of thing I'm supposed to know about, and _you know that_ ," Scott said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"You told me not to!" Kate countered.

"That doesn't mean that _I_ won't," Scott replied.

Kate shook her head at him before she crossed over to Clint's kitchen table and grabbed a stack of files. "Here. This is the latest stuff. If you can find something that actually gives their names or their designations, that would be _great_ , because so far all I'm getting is the creeps from reading this torture crap."

"You want in? Then start helping," Clint agreed.

Scott let out a sigh and found himself a seat, more curious to know what was in the files than he was frustrated by the fact that _no one had told him_ this was going on — though he wasn't going to forget that anytime soon, either.

It was clear that the five people in Clint's apartment that had already been there had been doing this for a while, because they didn't even need to talk to each other as they passed around files, coffee, and food. Occasionally, someone would find something 'new' — some new method of control or a mention of a doctor or mission they didn't have — and it would go in a steadily growing stack by Natasha. But other than that, it was silent and still and very, very early.

"Oh, hey, turn on the news," Kate said suddenly. "I didn't see how the vote—"

"It passed," Scott said without looking up from the file he was reading.

"Oh." Kate fell silent again.

It was another few moments before Clint spoke up. "Well, we're going into the holiday season before the House has to start up, right? Maybe have a little more goodwill toward men?"

"The optimism is thoughtful and purposefully naive, _vozlyublennaya_ ," Natasha said with a little smirk his way. "But it was a good attempt."

Clint frowned into his coffee mug and didn't say anything after that as the mood seemed to get slightly more oppressive in the room.

Scott's deep frown had only been settling in as he read through the files. Logan had never said more than the bare minimum about what had happened to him, but what he was seeing here… It had his whole body on edge. He was reading a particularly thorough account — though written in precise, clinical terms — that had him barely holding back the red at the edges of his eyes... when he noticed the name printed at the bottom, along with the date.

Essex. 1907.

It wasn't Windsor, and it wasn't Weapon X or Weapons Plus. This was _old_.

Scott hadn't realized it at the time, but he'd pulled a file from one of the boxes that Sinister had handed over to the little team after he took his samples from Wade. So this ... this was from his own _personal_ files on Logan.

Scott closed his eyes for a long moment, pinching the bridge of his nose as he took in a deep breath before he very suddenly stood from the table, still holding the file in his hand as he looked toward Kurt. "He never told me — _have you seen this_?" he asked, stuck somewhere between rage and shock.

Kurt looked to the file in Scott's hand for a moment before he very carefully had to ask, "I don't know which file that is, Scott. What's in it?"

Scott held it out almost accusingly at Kurt. "It's one of Sinister's personal files. Look at the date on it," he said through his teeth. He hardly paused before he went on, "Did you know he'd been after Logan for that long?"

"He said that Sinister made a point to find him if anything notable had happened, but .. no. He never said how long it had been going on."

Scott shook his head as he settled into a glare again. "Over a century… _He never told me_!"

"He didn't tell anyone," Kurt said reasonably. "It reads like it happened at a particularly … trying time."

"That's what he does. That's what he's always done." Scott frowned hard before he took the file back from Kurt and sat heavily in the chair as he took a deeper look at it, now fully engrossed in its contents and all but pausing over every single word. The others in the room watched him out of the corners of their eyes as he stayed in the same spot for hours and didn't seem to be in a hurry to go anywhere else, soaking in everything from Essex's initial approach of Logan to when Logan had stabbed him and burned the man's house down when he tried to press him into being a Marauder — which, at least, had Scott smirking.

"Look," Kate said suddenly, breaking the silence. "All this stuff ... it's still going to be here later. We should get back home — morning news is about to tell everyone about the vote, and you know people are gonna be upset, and you should see your kids and Annie," she said — which was the most anyone had said at once all night.

"I'd like to take this with me," Scott said.

"I'll make copies," Clint told him. "Right now, we've got a strict policy. Nothing leaves my place, seeing as the bad guys aren't exactly gonna check out an Avenger's place before they hit you at the school, y'know? And Nat's been backing up everything we can use on her own personal server."

"I'll make copies at the mansion," Scott told him, already tucking the files under his arm. "But it's good to know you have a plan."

Clint looked like he might try to argue, but at that moment, Deadpool woke up from where he had been using a pile of files as a pillow, and he broke into a wide grin visible under the mask on seeing Scott — so Kurt teleported the three X-Men back home before they could start a round of Wade welcoming Scott to the secret 'bust the Weapon X guys' club.

Scott hid the files away in his dresser before he headed down to the kitchen, where already both Logan and K were sipping coffee. The twins were up, too; Chance had climbed up in the chair next to K to rest his head in both hands and grin at Elin.

"When she gonna talk?" Chance asked K curiously, and Scott had to smirk at that as he scooped up Charlie before she could tip over the cereal box all over the floor.

"Right when you least expect it," K replied. "Just like you did. She'll probably just ... start."

"Can she say Tance?" he asked.

"I'm sure that'll be at the top of her list," she said with a little smile. "Especially if you keep being so sweet to her."

"And Tarly?"

"Yep, and Elf, too, I'll bet."

Chance giggled and nodded his approval before he reached over to boop Elin in the nose with one finger. "Start talknin, silly baby." But Elin simply raised an eyebrow at him and started giggling.

A little while later, Noh and Jubilee came downstairs with Sying. Both of them looked a bit worn out, and it was obvious watching Sying that he'd been giving them a hard time all night from the fact that he was still occasionally fussing at his dad and hitting him with little fists despite the gentle humming that only the ferals and Sying could hear from Noh as he bounced the little boy.

Kate and Kurt weren't far behind — though their little one was much less fussy and was instead very flirty and giggly that morning, giving out smiles to everyone. She had apparently woken up in a splendid mood, and Kurt sat down next to Logan with a small smile when he saw the two baby girls grin at each other.

"Can you turn on the news, Annie?" Kate asked as she filled herself up on coffee. "I want to see what the vote count was."

Annie raised an eyebrow at Kate, knowing from last night that Kate did know it had passed, but flipped on the television anyway, which played quietly in the background as everyone attended to their families and to breakfast. Though when Senator Robbins came on to declare the vote a 'victory for humanity,' little Charlie surprised everyone when she looked up and said, "Daddy doesn't like him."

"Nobody does, sweetheart; that's why he's being such a giant pain," K said as Krissy and Elin started trying to share their smooshed up berries.

"It's not exactly the note we would like to end the year on," Noh observed with a frown. "Christmas is next week, and I thought it would have been nice to celebrate the time of joy by laughing in the faces of those who opposed us."

"We have Kate's birthday for that," Logan told him.

"And Charlie's," Kate said with a grin at the little girl. "Birthday buddies, right, Charlie?"

Charlie giggled and nodded. "Mmhmm."

"And do you have any plans for your joint celebrations?" Erik asked as he arrived in the kitchen and started to make his usual tea.

"Fireworks at the end, cake at the beginning, and dancing in between. Same as always," Kate replied with a grin.

"Just try to make less of a mess out of your cake this year, Kate," Logan teased. "Six is awfully old to still wear that much of it."

"Well, I'm sure Charlie can help me with that," Kate teased right back.

"Charlie's more dignified than that," Logan laughed.

"No I'm not," Charlie said with a frown. "I'm not — I'm not… dig-i-fried."

He gave her a little smile and shook his head. "If you say so, punkin'."

Erik sat down beside Scott and smiled softly at Charlie. "It's a good thing," he tried to reassure the little girl. "It means you take after your namesake."

She stuck her tongue out at Erik and then wriggled down out of Scott's lap to go to her mom, who at least had Cheerios. Erik's smile at Charlie's antics fell a bit, though, when he looked up at the news to see the banner headline. "So they've passed it, then," he said in a tone that sounded more resigned than anything else — though none of the X-Men who had faced him in the past missed the undercurrent of cold fury, either.

"Just the Senate," Annie said quietly. "It's not law yet."

"And it won't be," Kate added. "Not if we have anything to say about it."

"Go get em, Hawkeye," K said in a slightly subdued tone.

Kate turned to say something to K, but whatever pithy comment she might have had was drowned out by the unmistakable sound of an explosion out on the grounds that had everyone flinching but especially those in the room with enhanced hearing. Sying in particular started crying and trying to hide his face in his dad's shirt — especially when the high-pitched screaming started up as some of the kids who were out on the grounds made their terror known.

In an instant, most of the occupants of the kitchen made a rush for the door and out onto the grounds to find a group of five of the students — Sophia and Brye with two of her friends, along with Leslie Ann, who they had been actively trying to be friendly toward since she got her powers and became the 'new girl in class'.

None of them were hurt, but all of them looked frightened. The remnants of a makeshift bomb were obvious to the X-Men who arrived on the scene — though whoever had thrown it had horrible aim, and it had detonated well away from the group of girls. Not that it made them any less shaken up over being attacked in their own home.

Leslie Ann ran right to Scott, who very quickly wrapped her in a hug and tried his best to calm her down as she told him between sobs and hiccoughs what had happened: she and the other girls had been in a snowball fight and hadn't seen anything until the bomb went off.

Logan had headed over to where the explosion had gone off and quickly checked the area, only to come back and report that it was an amateur job. "Probably some dumbass teenager," he decided. "Nothing but powder." He looked furious as he said it, though, looking over the scared kids. "Lucky whoever did it was incompetent — this time." The last bit was low enough that the little ones didn't seem to catch it.

Erik looked simply furious as well, and he was levitating next to Logan, looking over the area. "It didn't take long at all for the cowards to come out of their holes," he said disdainfully.

"Gimmie ten minutes and I'll find 'em," Logan promised.

"Annie has the girls," K agreed. "Looks like they _wanted_ a hunt."

"And if you two give him what he wants, that'll be what's on the news — teenager hunted by mutants," Scott pointed out.

"We're talking about scaring the piss out of a couple teenagers," Logan said. "You know — return the favor of what they did to the girls. Might teach 'em some manners."

"If you can find them with the evidence of the bomb they made still on their hands, we can turn them over," Scott reasoned. "Teach them some long-term manners."

Logan looked completely frustrated. "No cop is gonna take that case and be able to see it through. You saw what they tried to pull with Ty."

"My daddy would," Leslie Ann said, finally looking up from where she had Scott pinned in a hug.

"That's a great idea, kiddo," Logan said with a grim smile. "Call him up, Slim. Let him know we're out looking."

Scott nodded quietly, his jaw set as he pulled out his phone, while Kurt and Kate pulled the girls aside and did their best to help them calm down from the scare.

The little feral couple took about three seconds at the blast site before they broke off into a run and slipped into the trees on the other side of the road then headed down an invisible trail. Before they could get too far out of sight, Kurt turned his head toward one of the little bamfs and sent him off to keep an eye on the pair of ferals that were out hunting — just in case.

Scott herded the little girls inside, and Kate put a movie on for them as she listened to them and tried to snuggle each one of them. The safety and sanctity of the school was officially compromised, in spite of their best efforts — and it had the whole mansion in a grim sort of mood.

….

Translation from Russian:

 _Vozlyublennaya_ \- beloved


	14. Personal Loss

**Chapter 14: "Personal Loss"**

It was less than an hour before first the ferals came back — a bit muddied — but not bloodied as Scott was nervous about, and very shortly after that, Anton showed up looking for Leslie Ann with an extremely pained look on his face.

"Daddy!" Leslie Ann didn't hesitate to fling her arms around him as he dropped to one knee so he could be at her height and wrap her up in a hug.

"Are you okay, Les?" he asked as she hugged him tightly around the neck.

"Yeah, I guess," she said, sounding much better already for having her dad there. "Nobody got hurt, so... l... I'm okay."

Anton held her close for a moment before he looked up at Scott. "The kids that made the bomb are on their way to a long, long stay in jail," he said. "Domestic terrorism charges. Nothing they can make bail for, either, so they shouldn't bother you again."

"Thanks," Scott said with a small frown. "I wish I could say this was just a fluke thing…"

"Yeah, I saw the news. Half the force was celebrating," Anton said with a deep glare before he let out a sigh. "I'm going to take Leslie Ann back home. Thanks for calling me." He stood up and straightened out. "Call me again if you need to. Way things are right now, _somebody's_ got to keep the peace," he added before he took his little girl's hand and headed out.

Scott watched them go with a heavy heart. This was a more personal blow than Scott was prepared for. And he was sure things would get worse before they got better.

As the heavy doors closed behind them, Scott made his way upstairs to find K and Logan already changed out of the muddied clothes and trying to settle into the rest of the evening with Elin between them, though he noted that there was a pair of blacked-out uniforms lying on the bed - as if they were ready to change and slip out.

He tried hard to hide the expression on his face as he watched the way Logan was being extra attentive to Elin. It was a small change, but it was crystal clear to Scott that they were planning to hunt down someone a lot more substantial than a stupid teenager. And chances were, if that's what they were up to, they probably weren't going to be _able_ to come back.

"What's up, Slim?" Logan asked, looking up at him from where he and Elin were sitting on the floor.

"When you get a minute, I'd like to get a full rundown of what happened," Scott said, to which both Logan and K simply nodded in easy agreement.

"As soon as she falls asleep," K promised. "We'll find you."

"It's high time we had a few words before anything else goes wrong," Logan added. "We won't be long. Ready room?"

Scott very nearly looked to the uniforms again before he nodded his head. "Yeah. I'll be waiting." He was frowning hard as he headed toward the ready room — and when he passed Kurt, he had to pause.

"Kurt," he called out. "I'm meeting with Logan and K in the ready room to go over what happened — and I'd like you there to discuss a few other things while we've got them there."

"What kind of things do you have in mind?" Kurt asked.

"We're not going to get to the root of the problem chasing down teenagers with homemade bombs," Scott told him frankly.

"I'm sure they were simply trying to burn off some steam and make sure that Leslie Ann knew she was protected," Kurt told him. "You know what kind of trouble they'll get into if they go after any bigger fish."

"Which is why we can't let them do it alone," Scott said with a nod. He let out a sigh and tipped his head at Kurt. "They're already planning on it. They're ready to move, blacked-out uniforms — at this point, all we can do is back them up."

Kurt frowned deeply and shook his head before he crossed the gap between the two of them, laid a hand on Scott's arm, and teleported the two of them to the roof. "We can't let them go hunting Weapon X. _At all_. I'm sure that's what that evil group wants them to do."

"I know you're concerned," Scott said with a frown, "but at this point, we might be running out of options."

"Then come up with another one. This isn't just concern, Scott. If they take off, it's not going to end well." He shook his head again and decided it best to lay all the cards he had on the table. "They had Matt Murdock draw up paperwork — legal, notarized papers that say I'm to take over on Elin if anything happens to them." He paused to give Scott a moment to process before he dropped the other shoe. "You're named as second should there be a problem for me."

Scott went silent for some time, his mouth pressed into a thin line as he just… could hardly believe what he was hearing.

"If they are allowed to go, they're not planning on being able to return."

Scott nodded quietly before he scrubbed both hands over his face and let out a huge sigh. "You're right — we can't let them go after Weapon X," he said at last.

"But if they have their uniforms ready … how are we going to stop them?" Kurt asked.

Scott's expression shifted into something a bit more open than Kurt was used to seeing from him as he pressed a hand into the bridge of his nose. "They won't want to stay here — not after what happened with Leslie Ann and the other girls," he said, slowly and carefully. "So we need to give them somewhere else to go." He looked pained as he looked over at Kurt.

"How to keep them _there_ though?" Kurt said. "If they go alone — like you know they will try to do - we simply won't have any idea when it happens."

"Then we'll ask all three of them to go somewhere else," Scott said, very quietly. "They won't go looking for trouble if Elin is with them."

Kurt brightened a bit at that. "That … would work."

"Right." Scott let out a sigh. "Now we just have to convince _them_."

"If we word it right — and I simply teleport them to where we want them to be …."

"We'll try to talk them into it before we teleport them," Scott said. "But… if we have to…"

"Yes, convince them — but that's how they're travelling. Any other method will have people following them," Kurt said. "And it would give them an escape route. I'm thinking that wouldn't be the best of ideas."

Scott nodded. "Alright — let's get to the ready room before they decide not to wait for us."

As it turned out, Kurt and Scott got to the ready room not five minutes before the ferals finally walked through the door, both of them looking grim and serious as they took a seat. "We can't stay here and draw fire on the kids," Logan said as Scott and Kurt looked across the table from them.

"No. You can't," Scott agreed heavily. "But you can stay somewhere else."

"We'll send word if we run into anything we can't handle," Logan replied — missing Scott's suggestion entirely. "But you'll probably hear about it from other sources first if we screw up anyhow."

"You can't leave Elin here," Scott explained, still with that same heavy tone. "It won't stop them from coming after her if you're gone — and they were looking for the kids last time. Not the students."

"What are you talking about?" K asked, though both of them looked a bit taken off-guard by the suggestion. "They snatched Logan."

"Tyler overheard the soldiers' orders. They were after you two, yes, but they also had orders to grab anyone who was under school age that they found here," Scott said.

Both of them simply stilled, and Scott could almost see the gears turning in Logan's head trying to find a way around this one — and the obvious alarm on Elin's behalf. It was a toss up as to which way the news was tipping Logan.

Scott sighed again and scrubbed both hands over his face once more. "Right now, the way things are… we can't…" He let out his breath. "Logan, I'm sorry," he said bluntly. "This school — it's supposed to be a safe haven, and…"

"No, I get it," he said almost numbly as he misinterpreted what Scott was saying as a death sentence for the three of them — or at least a complete loss of backing. Had it not been for the little one, Scott and Kurt were sure his reaction would have been totally different. "I'll figure somethin' out," Logan said finally. He leaned back a bit and pulled the comm from his pocket to slide across the table to Scott.

"If you have any ideas," Kurt said quietly as Scott took one look at the comm and seemed to lose all his steam. "I can take you two and Elin to anyplace — the cottage, the cabin — anyplace they can't find you."

"I don't see what good that'll do," Logan said quietly.

"At the least, it will prove you're not _here_ ," Scott said with a steadily growing frown. "I know you're concerned about the students here — and maybe if we can prove you're not here, no one will come looking as we can have the space to _work_." He sighed and kept his gaze on the comm for a long moment. "K you stayed off their radar for years. All I'm asking is that you do the same things again, just until we can fix this."

The two of them looked at each other with matching frowns before K finally looked up at Scott. "You want us to _hide_? How are we supposed to take them down if we're hiding?"

"How are we supposed to take them down when they've got a law on their side pointing at you both with a neon sign?" Scott countered. "I'm not asking you to stay out of the fight. Just step out until the heat isn't-"

"This isn't your problem," K said. "It's our mess."

Scott shook his head. "That's not true. You've said it yourself — this team is family. It's not any less true now when you think it's your problem then it was when you appointed yourself Noh's lawyer on Hala."

Both of them stared back at him as he made his case. "It's not the same," Logan said finally.

"Yes, it is," Scott said before he let out a breath. "Listen — I know. I _know_ retreat is not the best option, and I know that's what it feels like — but if you can just trust me… Just lie low. Just for a little while is all I'm asking. Trust the team to take some of the heat off. Trust us to do our jobs and fight the battles that have to be fought with Washington and whoever else. And in the meantime, spend your downtime with Elin. She doesn't need you both to go off on a mission you don't think you can win. Wait. Stay with her. We can tear them to pieces when we _can_ win."

The two of them just reached for each other's hands for a moment and didn't seem to even discuss it further before Logan turned back to Scott. "What you're suggestin' … we'll be sitting ducks. When they find us — you have to get her out. They'll make what they did to Laura look like a walk in the park if they can get a hold of her."

"I swear," Scott agreed. "Kurt will take you wherever you want to go — and he'll be the only one to know. _If_ they find you, Elin will be in our War Room in a blink." He looked toward Kurt, who nodded very solemnly, a set to his jaw despite the expression of pure disappointment in the options available to them.

The two little ferals shared a look for a long moment before Logan turned back toward Scott. "We'll leave tonight," Logan said quietly. "Whenever you're ready, Elf."

Kurt looked surprised. "Logan… is there anything you need to bring?" he asked, stopping himself from asking if he was really sure even when they all knew this was the best option for the time being.

"It'd be better if we didn't take much," Logan said.

Kurt sighed heavily. "Alright. Bring Elin and anything she needs then, and I'll 'port all three of you."

"Meet you upstairs then," Logan said as he stood up and pulled K with him. The two of them headed up, leaving Scott and Kurt alone again.

Kurt glanced Scott's way for a long moment as Scott was staring at the table before, in a rush, Scott stood up and snatched the comm Logan had left behind, taking the stairs two at a time before he reached Logan and K's room.

"I don't care what else you're taking, but you're taking this," he said, shoving the comm into Logan's hand as soon as he burst into the room. "I'm not letting any member of my team out in a climate like this without a way to call for backup."

"It's not smart to stay on — even if it's just a _title_ ," Logan replied. "If I'm hiding instead of fighting, I'm already off the team. Not just this one either. I already sent Cap the same message. It's fine Scott. You got a good group. It's not worth the risk." He pushed the comm back at Scott.

"That's my decision to make," Scott said. "Take the damn comm."

Logan frowned at him for a moment but quit trying to give it back to him when he saw the look on Scott's face, though he still thought it best to simply cut ties.

Scott watched him for a moment with a frown before he nodded once and turned on his heel, though as he passed Kurt in the hallway, he muttered, "If he leaves his comm behind, leave yours in its place."

Kurt nodded at Scott before he reached Logan and K's room himself to find that both Logan and K were ready to go — no sign of the black uniforms. But they had Elin, and Kurt let out a sigh. " _Woher_?" he asked K quietly.

"You know where," K replied as she put her free arm around Kurt's back. "You're the only one that really knows where it is, outside of us."

He nodded quietly, and in an instant, all four of them were in K's cottage, and he turned to face the little family with the most open look K had ever seen from him. "I will come when I can — and try to keep you in the loop," he promised. "Both in our fight and in our lives. I'll bring plenty of pictures — you know Peter will help…"

At that, K took Logan's cell and her own and handed them to Kurt. "Smarter if _you_ have them. Smarter still if you didn't look back."

Kurt swallowed and pocketed the phones. "You've got a comm — call me for anything you need. Anything at all." He perked up a bit, flatly ignoring K's comment. "I may stop by on Christmas. Kate would be horribly disappointed if you two didn't have your presents at least. She's insisting Elin needs her own teddy bear."

"The things I got for the kids are in our closet," K told him. "Since Kate insisted on shopping early."

"She always does," Kurt laughed quietly.

She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, with Elin in her arms before she whispered a quiet, " _Tack så mycket_. _För allt_. _Du har varit en underbar vän. Adjö._ "

" _Auf Wiedersehen … fur jetzt_ ," he replied before he gently kissed Elin's head and simply teleported away.

* * *

When Kate came downstairs for breakfast — a bit earlier than usual because she wanted to get an early start and head over to Clint's place that morning — she was surprised to find that there was no coffee.

It was brewing, sure, but it looked like Bobby had started it, and he was frowning over at the table. Kate followed his gaze and glared a bit when she realized that there was a distinct absence at the table. No newspaper, no ferals…

Bobby glanced over at Kate and let out a breath. "Is it bad that I'm kinda hoping they went after JJ?"

Kate frowned and sat up on the counter, pulling down a mug and waiting for the coffee to finish brewing. "That would make the lack of coffee worth it," she muttered tiredly as she adjusted the just-as-sleepy Krissy in her arms. "Think they took my Elf with them? I haven't seen him all morning, and I don't think he came to bed last night."

"Sorry about that," Scott said as he joined the two of them, looking like he hadn't slept in a week. "He was out with me working on a project." He gave Kate a significant look.

"And you didn't invite me?" she asked.

"You've been running a few late nights with Clint lately. We thought we'd let you sleep," he said before he let out a sigh. "Besides, neither of us felt much like sleeping."

"Yeah… how's Leslie Ann?" Kate asked.

"She's fine. At least, as much as can be expected." Scott looked a bit longingly at the coffee pot. "She and the other girls are a little wary of going outside, though."

"Well, at least that's the fuzzy Elf taken care of," Kate sighed. "I don't suppose you know where the resident grumps are, do you?"

"Ah." Scott let out a bit of a sigh. "I don't know. Not exactly. But until things are a little less dangerous, they're laying low."

"Define 'laying low'," Bobby said, raising both eyebrows. "Because that doesn't sound like a play in the Wolverine book."

"No," Scott said with a little shake of his head. "But it is one in K's book."

Kate frowned as she looked Scott's way. "But… they just… when did they… they can't just _leave_ without... "

No one already down at breakfast had noticed Jubilee and Noh come in with Sying until Jubilee was half in Scott's face. "You can't just let them go after those guys on their own!" she insisted. "No _way_ are they just… hiding!"

"They're safe — they're with Elin," Scott said, almost wearily.

At that, Jubilee straightened right up with wide, disbelieving eyes. She was hardly paying attention as Noh took Sying from her arms. "Are they _coming back_?" Her tone was almost as if she was lost.

"Yes." Scott looked up at her for a long moment. "As soon as we can… we'll figure out this mess, and we'll bring them back."

If Scott was expecting her to yell at him, he was disappointed. Instead, Jubilee seemed to steel herself and then moved to get herself her breakfast as Noh rocked Sying. She didn't say a word after that, but the locked jaw expression made it clear to anyone in the room that she was hurt and angry.

Noh leaned over to pull her a bit closer and quietly kissed the side of her temple before Scott let out a sigh. "Has anyone seen Hank yet this morning? Or Tyler?" he asked quietly.

"You hurt, boss man?" Kate asked with a quick look of concern.

"No, I just — I need to talk to them."

"I think they were both down in the lab," Bobby offered. "Hank was helping Ty redo his schedule — get his generals done online so he doesn't have to … you know. Go on campus."

"Right," Scott said, his jaw locking into place once again. "Thanks."

He pushed away from the counter and headed down to the lab. Knowing how hard Logan and K had been to bring around to the whole point of that conversation last night had him half dreading talking to Hank. But if they were going to keep their team members safe — they had to get away from the mansion. And Logan and K weren't the only ferals on the team.

He leaned in the doorway to Hank's office after he knocked on the door. It seemed almost criminal to break up the excitement that was flying around that room as Hank and Tyler were fairly excited about the online possibilities of clearing out a large chunk of Tyler's core classes.

"Ah! Our fearless leader! What can I do for you on this fine morning?" Hank asked with a grin.

Scott moved from the door to lean against the wall and let out a bit of a sigh. "I was actually hoping to talk with you both," he said. "About what happened yesterday — with the bomb and with the bill passing the Senate... "

"You have some serious concerns about the safety of those that live within these walls," Hank finished for him with a nod. "Of course."

Scott rubbed the back of his neck and let out a breath. "Right."

"And factoring in the trouble that Tyler had with the campus police, naturally, the feral population is drawing in too much trouble. No shock, considering that there are more here than I believe exist anywhere else in any concentration," Hank said before he drew in a breath and held it. "We're putting a target on this place. And that … cannot stand."

"You know I wouldn't ask if I didn't have another option," Scott started out.

"You don't have to, Scott," Hank said, his tone almost gentle and reassuring. "I understand completely. Truly. I have a place to go — no — I don't think I should tell you where. But we can tuck in there and wait for the smoke to clear a bit. If you can stand to be apart from a couple of image inducers, of course."

"Take anything you need," Scott said without hesitation.

"I'll be honest, I'm more concerned about leaving you without medical assistance," Hank said before he pulled out a pad and a pen and started to write. "But … I do believe Ms. Celia Reyes is still licensed. I'd recommend putting her on payroll to keep your students' and parents' minds at ease."

Hank stood up and gave Scott a once-over. "We'll make it as painless as possible," Hank said before he held his breath a moment and wrapped up Scott in a bear hug. "We'll all be fine."

Scott returned the hug for a moment, still frowning. "I'm just sorry it's even gotten to this point. This school is supposed to be a haven…"

"Balderdash," Hank said in a gruff voice, still squeezing Scott. "It's not your doing, and you're trying to reverse the idiocy of that moron in Washington. Head high, Mr. Summers."

Scott smiled the slightest bit as he said, "It would be easier with you handling the Hill."

"That man values normalcy over all else. You would have a better shot at him," Hank said. "And if all else fails — _a better shot._ "

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that," Scott said, though he couldn't help the soft smile.

"At least not while he's in the spotlight," Hank said. "Of course, that might just be my _vicious_ feral side peeking its head out." He was grinning as he said it.

Scott matched him with a small smile before he let out a sigh. "Hank … you're going to see on the news that you've been run out or however they spin it…"

"Nonsense," Hank replied before he leaned in close. "I'll be on my honeymoon."

That broke Scott out of the gloom that had been hanging over him all morning as he just blinked at Hank for a moment before he returned the bear hug. "Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"I honestly thought she'd want to postpone," Hank replied. "I underestimated how … defiant she can be. Apparently."

"Yeah," Tyler said with a smirk. "That's Mom."

"And officially, we need time to connect as a family," Hank told Scott with an obviously proud smile. "So I'm not running in the least."

Scott had to shake his head, still grinning in more shock than anything else. "Congratulations — to all three of you," he said at last before he turned Tyler's way. "You've got a pretty amazing step-dad here."

"I've got the best step-dad in history," Tyler corrected him.

Scott smiled a bit wider. "Yeah, you're right," he had to agree. He paused, thought it over, and then stepped over to wrap Tyler in a congratulatory hug as well. "You three have fun — wherever you go. But make sure you take a comm with you so when this whole thing is over, we can throw you a proper reception at least."

"Sounds like a fabulous idea," Hank replied before he gave Scott a crushing slap on the shoulder. "You look like you could use a break from all this … mess. I can only assume that either it didn't go well with Logan and K or … you haven't gotten there yet."

"Actually… they left last night," Scott admitted with a heavy sigh. "Kurt took them and Elin — he can take the three of you if you have a place in mind and think it's necessary."

"This will all work out fine, Scott," Hank said seriously. "I'm sure they weren't planning on how it turned out. They'll be fine, too. It's only the added concern for the little one that has them off their usual game."

Scott nodded seriously. "It'll work out," he repeated, and it sounded more like he was convincing himself than anything else.

….

 _From Swedish: Tack så mycket_. _För allt_. _Du har varit en underbar vän. Adjö. - Thanks so much. For everything. You are a wonderful friend. Farewell._

 _From German: Auf Wiedersehen … fur jetzt_. - Goodbye … for now.


	15. An Inside Scoop

**Chapter 15: "An Inside Scoop"**

The news team arrived at the gate the school, and Scott met them there, along with Storm. Neither of them looked happy, but this was the best way they had to turn down some of the heat and keep their students safe.

It was, of course, JJ who showed up looking positively gleeful at the chance to prove that the feral mutants were not in the school, and the first thing he said when he saw Scott was, "You can't expect me to just take your word for it that they're gone."

"And you can't expect me to allow a camera crew in here to record all of my students," Scott countered with his arms crossed. "You and you alone are allowed in. No cameras. No crew. No recording devices."

"We're not going to risk the privacy of minors over this," Storm added, matching Scott's body language with a spark of fury just behind her gaze.

JJ frowned and looked a bit disappointed, but the expression passed quickly. "Alright - but I get the _full_ tour. I want to be sure any hidey-holes — anything at all — are covered." He clapped his hands together and rubbed them. "This is still a story, people. A big one — inside the elusive institute…."

"You'll remain with two staff members at all times," Scott said. "And you are _not_ allowed to speak to the students. Break any rules — push any boundaries — and I'll kick you out myself."

"I'm not interested in your students," he said with a wave of his hand. "Not right now anyway — that's not where the story is."

"Seeing as the school has always been available for a tour — it's really not much of a story either."

"Tell the truth, Mr. Summers. Your tours don't nearly cover what goes on in this school."

"One thing I'm not going to tolerate is the insinuation that we don't tell the truth to begin with, _John,"_ Scott replied evenly. "No one gets to see the goings on of the classes except for the students — who are learning all the same things that every other school teaches."

"If that's true, then let's get this show on the road. If there's no story, there's no point in waiting. Time is money — so stop wasting mine."

Scott and Storm glanced at each other before they led JJ through the grounds and up to the school, and the reporter actually seemed genuinely interested in the school itself the closer they got to it.

"You rebuilt this whole thing in a matter of months?" he asked, a bit wide-eyed.

"We have excellent contractors," Scott replied dryly.

"If only the rest of us had the ability to bounce back so quickly," JJ muttered, shaking his head.

"As I recall, you said you sustained no damage," Storm said without turning her head his way. "I'm sure it's trying for you when you have so little to complain about."

He shook his head at her and glared, though he seemed content to push into the entryway and start nosing around a bit — with the rest of the staff watching. He didn't acknowledge them more than a short glare, though he did seem to pause when he saw several of the pictures in the hallway — all the different classes of students that had been through the school.

He stopped in front of one with Logan and a huge group of widely grinning kids. "What does he teach?" he asked Storm.

"History," Storm replied. "Or he did. It was one of our most popular classes. Some of the staff almost always sat in when they reached World War Two."

JJ nodded thoughtfully at that. "That makes sense, actually," he said. "I've seen the dates on his files." He didn't offer more of an explanation on that other than to nose his way down the next hallway.

"Place seems pretty empty," JJ commented after a while. "And not just for the holiday break. You sure you didn't just clear everyone out and invite me over so they can come back later?"

"You wanted to look for yourself. You've met K — she and Logan are not the kind to hide around corners. If they were here - they'd be talking to you now," Scott said. "Everyone is in class. Teaching. The most I can do is take you to his classroom."

"And anywhere else outside of the classes and student areas," JJ reminded him.

"That was what we promised."

"Alright — let's get this over with. I have a newspaper to run."

"Funny, it seemed it was more of a witch hunt," Storm said airly.

"You can try to brand it that way, but miss, I've run my paper and my network on a brand of honest journalism," he said with a bit of heat.

"Yet it will end the same as the Salem trials," Storm replied.

"We'll just have to wait and see," JJ said as they headed up the stairs. Things were progressing just about as icily as they had expected until they turned a corner and JJ nearly lost his footing on a toy that one of the twins must have left behind — and that Annie missed when she was gathering up the kids to keep them out of JJ's path.

He caught himself on the edge of the wall and reached down to pick up the little plastic turtle with an expression that, frankly, neither Scott nor Storm had ever seen from him before. It didn't last very long, though, and he looked up at them and cleared his throat. "Are you sure it's a good idea to have young families here?" he asked. "This place is a target more often than not."

"The families are all staff," Scott said. "And seeing as mutants are hunted across the country, I don't see the advantage of avoiding living while we are offering a haven from that hatred. It actually seems to help the students have more stability."

"You don't want to look into outside housing?" JJ asked, his eyebrows scrunched.

"That is pushing the lines of your business," Scott replied. "Many students are here full-time - and so is the staff."

"Right. I know that's not the purpose of the tour — but these are _young_ kids we're talking about here," JJ said with a bit of a gruff tone to his voice.

"It's not a requirement to stay on-grounds — but so far, all the staff does. Believe it or not, having this many mutants in one place seems to be more protection than being an isolated single unit off-grounds." He paused a moment. "We even have a teacher on staff that specializes in younger children, since, from time to time, a physically mutated kid is kicked out of their home long before they're old enough to manifest any other abilities."

"Would I be correct in thinking this member of your staff is the former Kindergarten teacher and current Mrs. Summers?" JJ replied.

Scott tensed his jaw just the slightest before he nodded. "Before her, we had a specialist come in. It's been much better for the kids to have someone more available to them."

"And she's one of two non-powered staff members here — unless I'm mistaken?"

Scott sighed a bit. "Being a mutant has never been a requirement to teach."

"No, but it certainly helps to be married to one," JJ muttered.

"Actually, I hired her," Storm said. "Scott was not on staff and had no idea that she had decided to interview."

"I find that hard to believe. This place stinks of nepotism."

"As he said before, we don't have to be asked to tell the truth," Storm said. "I'd advise you to apply to teach here yourself, but then you'd be treading on my turf — and I feel as though I'm a far more reasonable and agreeable teacher."

"Never had the patience or the temperament for that kind of thing anyway," he said, waving his hand.

"It's a shame. We've had a few students deeply interested in journalism that simply gave up when faced with the attitude within that field," Storm said. "I'm sure if they'd had a coach to encourage them, they would have been amazing reporters."

"Then find someone who's out of the game and focus on teaching what you say you're teaching these kids," JJ said irritably. "Leave me out of it."

"I'm afraid they've learned that those in the field of journalism are terrible bigots when confronted with things they don't understand." She paused and looked down her nose at him. "I'd never dream of asking you to confirm those suspicions." She gave him a final glance before she turned her head and started to leave. "I have work to do," she said. "Your next escort will meet you two at the end of the hall."

JJ glared after her as she left. "Now don't get me wrong. There are hacks in the business," he said, only half to Scott. "But they're the ones who don't do their research. Me, I-"

"Do only half of it and run with it." Scott finished. "You'd fail her research paper."

JJ frowned at him for a moment. "I do my research, Mr. Summers. You just don't like my conclusions."

"Really?" Scott said, turning toward him. "You've been running with the Weapon X story like you're on their payroll."

"It's the biggest scoop I've had in years — government conspiracy, not to mention it answers plenty of questions on your little feral friends."

"Yet you haven't done a _thing_ with the conspiracy side of it — or what they did to my friends to make them do the things they did. Half. The research," Scott said. "And you haven't asked their side of it at all. At. All. With the invasion, you even took the Kree's side of things into consideration — but in busting out with a career-making story — you blow it and just run with the dark government's side of it. Half-assed journalism at best."

"I _wanted_ the government conspiracy angle. Your teacher, Miss Bishop — she seemed more than willing to help, but I've gotten nothing from you or her."

"Then _why_ are you running the evil mutant angle when it all points to government run slavery?"

"You want me to run a different story — I can't get my hands on _any_ files that say otherwise."

"You can't get your hands on any of the files because you quit looking for them and you sided with Weapon X on air." Scott accused him. "And _Mrs. Wagner_ isn't going to give you a damn thing while you're pulling in panelists that were — and are _still_ — employed by Weapon X and acting like they're unbiased. You didn't even look into their credentials before you just took them at face value!"

"That program is defunct. Everything I've got on them is thirty, forty years old."

"It is _not_ defunct," Scott replied with a bit of a red tinge in his eyes. "You're not digging in the right places. We've fought them for years."

"Then where _should_ I be digging, Mr. Summers? Please, tell me how to do my job."

"Try Department H for starters."

"More single-letter wild goose chases."

"I didn't name them," Scott said. "That's the overseeing sector that handled them and all of their experiments — in Canada. I can give you the name and number of my contact if you actually want to look into it — but I have a feeling that would be a waste of my time."

"I can have my research department check your sources before you waste any more of my time-"

"No. Don't use some underpaid kid. You want to do right by this story? Do it yourself for a change."

JJ glared at Scott for a moment. "Fine," he all but spit out. "Don't say I don't give you guys a fair shake - let you earn your reputation as dangerous for yourselves, but I'll give you a fair say in this."

"We'll see about that," Scott said as Rachel walked up to the two of them with one eyebrow raised.

JJ regarded her with a look of distaste. "Ms. Grey, if I'm not mistaken. Telepath, right?"

"I'm more of a telekinetic, actually," Rachel replied with a friendly smile. "But thank you for trying to learn who we all are. It makes it easier when no one has to explain themselves."

"I do my homework," JJ said, glancing at Scott.

"Yes, you do," she said, still smiling. "You have seen the general admission areas, right? Are you ready to take the terribly droll walk through … what's next on your checklist? Offices? Dormitory?"

"That and any sublevels and structures on the grounds."

"I'm afraid you need to be an X-Man to make it to sublevels," Scott said. "Earn the badge, and I'll take you down and teach you to fly the jet."

"Convenient," JJ muttered with a glare. "And not exactly the proof positive I was promised."

"You wanted into the _school_. I've extended that to the living areas as well. The X-Men's area of operations was never part of the deal. But you know and I know if Logan or K was here, she'd be showing you around herself."

"Likely with unnecessary commentary," JJ half-grumbled.

"We miss her too," Rachel said, smirking a bit to herself. "I know as irritating as that interview was, it had to be great for your ratings."

"The public doesn't know a thing about real news," JJ snapped her way.

"No, but she does. And she gave you a good lead, I thought," Rachel replied as she narrowed her eyes at him, with her head tipped to the side.

"Ironic - it's the lead that brought me here," JJ replied.

Most of the rest of the tour was uneventful, though JJ did try his level best to get access to anywhere that he hadn't specifically been denied access to. He seemed more interested in the school than the missing ferals, surprisingly, and when he did finally leave, it was with a thoughtful look as he muttered to himself about single-letter goose chases.

The doors behind him were scarcely closed before Rachel turned to Scott with fire in her eyes. "Alright. So. I put in some psychic blocks for him."

Scott turned to her in surprise. "You what?"

"Someone was tampering with him. I'm not sure who — but whoever it is won't do it again," she promised. "It should give some wicked psychic feedback to them if they do. Whoever it was."

Scott stared at her for a moment before he just started to shake his head, looking a bit more distressed than before, if that was possible. "If that's true — we've been focused on the wrong opponent."

"Yep," she said, nodding her head in agreement. "It's a shell game." She looked up at him thoughtfully. "If I can get more time with him, I can make it a lot stronger."

"You may need to," he said, the same look on his own face. "This is Weapon X we're talking about. Making things difficult for them won't stop them outright."

"Yes, of course it won't," Rachel said waving her hand a bit. "But whoever they have, I can outclass them given half a chance and a clear path."

Scott had to grin at that. "I know you can," he agreed.

"So the next time that there's an interview to be done — or whatever — I'm going with you. If they're around, I'll shut them down."

"We'll keep an active eye out for any chance we get — but you know when they hit your blocks they're going to keep a closer eye on him," he said, then let out a sigh. "But if you can get them ... "

"I could go looking right now," She replied. "Just need someone to play backup while I head down to Cerebro."

Scott gave her an honest-to-goodness grin. "Let me help with that," he said.


	16. Change of Leadership

**Chapter 16: "Change of Leadership"**

The morning before Christmas, everyone in the know was at Clint's apartment. There would be a Christmas Eve party at the mansion and at Avengers Tower and in various other places, but for the moment, all six of them were working like mad trying to sift through the information they had.

Natasha hadn't taken the news of Logan leaving well at all — that much was obvious by how she had gone entirely silent and was simply throwing herself into the work with a heavy glare that had scared off the bamfs, Wade ... even Lucky was keeping his distance.

Scott had been in Clint's apartment for just about as long as Annie would let him. She still insisted that he spend at least bedtime with the twins, but beyond that… Well, Clint had promised to give him a beer or three every night and try to make him sleep, but Scott didn't know about that particular promise to Annie.

The bamfs were in full entertainment mode taking care of Krissy so that Kate and Kurt could really help dive into the files as well, and even Wade was down after hearing about the ferals leaving.

As Scott had predicted, the whole thing had made the news — the thorough sweep to prove that there were no ferals at the school and the speculative storm that followed as to where they might have gone. And it _had_ , at the very least, meant the school was a bit safer. There was still the usual anti-mutant graffiti, some hate mail… but nothing violent.

Of course, not a one of them was sure if that made them feel any better about the situation or worse — the fact that their friends' absence was somehow making their lives easier.

But even with the political climate — not to mention the heavy December snowfall outside to match the mood — it _was_ Christmas Eve, and Clint insisted that everyone had to go be with family starting at dinnertime. "I've got plans with Gerry and Jess and Nat — and you guys have places to be too."

So, after Clint prodded a few more times, the little group finally put bookmarks in their places and headed back home to where there was hot chocolate, a warm fire, twinkle lights … and a few conspicuous absences.

Of course, it was also the first Christmas for the youngest in their group, so for their sake, they were all _trying_. There were Christmas Eve pajamas to go around for everyone, and both Krissy and Sying seemed perfectly happy in their snuggly, fuzzy, red long johns. Chance and Charlie had adorable matching green jammies too, though Chance wasn't wearing his at the moment because he wanted to fingerpaint, and his mother insisted that he not wear his Christmas jammies when he was in danger of paint splatters.

While Chance was diligently working on his masterpiece, Charlie crawled up into Kurt's lap so that she could pretend to read along as Kurt read the Nativity story in Luke, with Kate leaning on his shoulder and Krissy listening with wide eyes to her dad reading. Kurt let Charlie turn the page where it was needed, and for just a little while, it was a warm and cozy Christmas Eve.

By the end of the night, Charlie, Kate, _and_ Krissy had all fallen asleep in a pile on Kurt, and Annie had to help him carefully get the little brunette Summers out of the cuddle pile so Annie could get her to bed. Chance, on the other hand, didn't seem to want to go to sleep, insisting that he had to finish his project, and even after he was finished, he wouldn't let _anybody_ see it, insisting, "It's for Chwismas."

Jubilee was uncharacteristically quiet through most of the night, and when it came time to head to bed, Noh swept both her and Sying up in his arms and carried them off without a word, very quietly singing Christmas songs to both of them as Sying drifted off and Jubilee was very obviously missing her Wolvie.

As for Scott, he'd finally managed to get Chance back into his Christmas pajamas and away from his paints, and he wasn't too surprised that halfway back to their room, Chance fell asleep on his shoulder, worn out from all the playing he'd been doing. He tucked Chance in and started to slip out, but Annie caught him around the middle and more or less pulled him into bed. "It's Christmas Eve. You're going to _sleep_ ," she said in a tone that brokered no argument before she wrapped her arms around him from behind to go to sleep herself and make it more or less impossible for him to try to leave without disturbing her.

* * *

The next morning, the twins didn't wait long at all to start waking people up — starting with their parents but also screaming down the hallways that it was time for "pwesents" before either Annie or Scott was awake enough to stop them from making a ruckus.

The steaming mugs of coffee and hot chocolate, the adults started to trickle in at the insistence of the two little troublemakers to where the large Christmas tree was set up with presents. There were stockings for the youngest kids, of course, though Krissy and Sying were too young to understand what was happening except that the edges of the stockings were very fuzzy and fun to play with.

The twins were clearly running the show, too, pulling people down the stairs if they were taking too long. It seemed there was an unspoken agreement between the two little ones, as Charlie was guiding people inside while Chance told them where to sit. When the little group of those who had remained in the mansion for the holidays was all settled — the last to arrive was Erik, pulled along by Charlie, who refused to let go of his hand until he was seated and had a present to open — the adults were ready to start exchanging gifts, but the twins were clearly _not_.

"NO," Charlie all but shouted when Annie started to pull the ribbons off of hers. "Gotta wait for evvybody."

Chance nodded his agreement, his little arms crossed over his chest. "Wogan and Aunt K and Ewin gotta come."

Annie and Scott glanced at each other, and it was clear from the pregnant pause that filled the room that no one knew quite what to say to the obstinate little twins, especially when both of them had their most stubborn looks on, with arms crossed and little glares.

It was Kurt who found his voice first, and who tried a gentle explanation. "They're having Christmas just the three of them — as a family," he said, and while Charlie seemed to consider this for a moment, Chance only got more upset.

"But this IS famwy!" Chance insisted.

The adults in the room looked at each other — no one knew what to do. It was clear they'd all hoped the kids would be distracted by presents and Christmas and that at the very least they could get through Christmas morning, but two very stubborn Summers children had derailed any hope of that entirely — and what's worse was they all knew Chance was right.

Finally, Scott let out a sigh and pulled Chance onto his lap. "I know, buddy. But you know how Aunt Theresa and her family sometimes go on trips? This is like that — they're on a family trip," he said. "Not everyone is lucky enough to live so close to their family all the time like we do with Aunt Rachel and Uncle Anton and everyone at the mansion."

Chance screwed up his whole face as he thought it over, but he still looked upset about it. Charlie came over to climb up onto Scott's lap too and held her brother's hand as she asked, "When they comnin back?"

"Very soon," Annie promised before Scott could say anything. She reached over and tickled Charlie's tummy for a second. "Why don't you two open some presents first? We can all take turns."

"But I wanna give Ewin _my_ pwesent," Chance said, still stubbornly, his little hands balled up. Tt was clear he was trying very hard not to cry, even though he'd already started up.

"What present is that, sweetheart?" Annie asked.

Chance wriggled down out of Scott's lap and ran over to where he had been fingerpainting the night before. He came back with his very colorful masterpiece held proudly in both hands. "I maked this for Ewin's first Chwismas pwesent," he said quietly.

In the silence that followed that pronouncement, you could have heard a pin drop.

"Chance," Kurt said, his voice rough. "Why don't you put your lovely drawing on the table? I can make sure Elin gets it later."

"How?" the little guy asked, still trying to keep from crying.

Kurt tried for a shaky smile before he teleported to crouch down in front of the little guy and very gently wrapped him up in a hug. "I can go anywhere, remember?" he said. "I can find Elin and give her your drawing. I'm sure she'll love it."

Chance seemed to study Kurt very carefully before he solemnly handed Kurt the drawing and scrubbed his fists against his eyes before his sister shoved a present into him so he could open it.

Thankfully for everyone else in the room who was on the verge of following Chance into his fit of tears, the rest of the morning went much better, as once the present-opening got into full swing, the mood was much lighter. All of the little ones were completely spoiled with presents from everyone in the mansion, and both Chance and Charlie were sure to give everyone hugs as 'thank you's, as directed by their polite and smiling mother.

Of course, there was a bit of a hiccough when they got to the presents from Logan and K — but the bamfs seemed to sense the mood of the room and stepped in, 'accepting' the hugs that would have been 'thank you's and then doing their level best to turn the whole thing into a massive hug pile with lots of giggling and tickling that seemed to keep the twins from realizing that they had been deflected.

With all the presents opened, Sying and Krissy were taking naps after their early morning excitement, and the twins were totally occupied playing with their new toys and with the bamfs. So it was the perfect opportunity for the adults in their group to split off a bit. Kurt took Chance's little drawing almost reverently before he teleported away, and while Annie stayed in the living room to watch the twins play with the bamfs, a few of the other mansion residents opted for breakfast.

Scott had assigned himself coffee pot duty and was making a fresh batch — he hadn't slept well the night before, even with Annie trying her best, and the caffeine was barely keeping him on his feet. He sat down with a full mug and a few slices of the pumpkin bread Annie had made the night before, not even realizing what he was doing as he took the seat at the end of the table and started to read over the newspaper.

"Do you mind if I join you?" Erik asked as he watched Scott with a concerned look.

Scott glanced up for a moment and then lightly shook his head. "Go right ahead," he said, gesturing to the nearby seat.

"I'm not used to splitting the news with anyone," Erik commented quietly.

Scott smirked for just a moment. "You can have the world news if you want — I'm finished with it," he offered. "Could turn on the TV too — but I thought I might keep it a bit… quieter this morning."

"No reason to listen to unnecessary ranting on such a holiday," Erik agreed.

Scott nodded. "And the last thing we need is for Chance or Charlie to hear them talk about our missing friends. Or see their pictures." He scrubbed a hand over his face for a moment before he looked back down at the paper. "I guess none of us realized how hard they'd take it."

"Yes, I think most of those here took it harder than expected," Erik agreed.

"Crummy timing is what it is," Scott said. "If this had happened over the summer… at least the kids could have gone on vacation with their aunt or…" He just let out a sigh. "Well. It would still be hard on everyone else."

"I take it you're losing hope then," Erik said in a very low tone.

Scott looked up quickly in almost alarm. "No," he said, very firmly. "No. We've just got to work harder and faster."

"If there's anything at all I can do that would be helpful..."

"I'll let you know as soon as I can find anything concrete to give you," Scott promised. "Right now… it's just a matter of _finding_ something to do," he admitted with a heavy sigh. "I know it's there. I know we can get them — we just need to move faster."

"You can only do so much alone," Erik told him. "This organization has specialized in procuring and hiding secrets on top of secrets for decades."

"I don't care," Scott told him frankly. "We're going to bust them wide open."

"Yes, I'm sure you will. I just hope that it happens before they can strike you back," Erik said. "Which you know they will try to do."

Scott closed his eyes for a moment, and he seemed to sigh out his breath with his entire body. "I know," he said. "And I'm working with Noh upgrading the security. Forge has been working on some new ideas…"

"The last time they attacked — how did you fare?"

Scott scrubbed one hand over his jaw. "They grabbed Logan," he admitted. "We were lucky it wasn't worse. Kurt got K and most of the little ones out, and Logan was able to escape."

"Do you believe they're safe where they are now?"

"K was able to evade these people for years. If they hadn't found some of her spots before…" Scott sighed. "And if there's trouble, I'm sure we'll know. One way or another." He glared down at the newspaper for a moment and took a long sip of the coffee in his hand. "They _should_ have been safe _here_ ," he muttered out at last, almost too quietly for Erik to catch it.

"When it was just Logan staying here," Erik said gently, "it was always a matter of whether the risk was worth the reward. It's a calculation I made many times myself — whether the fight was worth the intented outcome. But with both of them — and the prospect of the little one — I'm sure it was too much for them to pass up. It's nothing anyone could deter, I believe."

Scott's shoulders relaxed the slightest bit, but he still looked frustrated. "That's what the X-Men are supposed to do — stop that kind of thing _exactly_. Keep mutants safe from organizations like that," he said, the words all but tumbling out of him as if he just couldn't stop it.

"And you will," Erik decided. "But in this case, you have to do it for the bulk of the group _first._ "

"The professor would never have turned anyone out," Scott said, finally meeting Erik's gaze with a completely open expression.

"And he lost many because he tried to protect peacefully when a fight was required," Erik said. "No one knows that better than I do."

"Then we fight them. I shouldn't have — that's not what this school was founded on."

"No," Erik said with a nod. "But if you want to defend those principles, you need to ensure that this place is as safe as it was when Charles _started_ it." There was a spark in his gaze that Scott knew only too well as he leaned forward further. "That may mean sending Weapon X packing with their tail between their legs. Make them regret even considering attacking this place. _That_ is what Charles should have done years ago to ensure the sanctity of this place."

Scott held Erik's gaze for a long moment as he thought it over before he started to nod. "Right." He took in a breath. "Classes start up again in January. And I think ... it's time to really knuckle down on team training. The old team and the new one. I'll make sure it's on the schedule." He ran a hand through his hair. "And ... find a replacement for Logan in self-defense. We can't let that class drop — not right now."

"I can't make any suggestions in that department," Erik said. "But I can step in for his history class, if you'd like. Offer a different perspective."

Scott smiled softly and nodded. "If you wouldn't mind. I might even sit in if I have time."

"It isn't likely as exciting as his war-time accounts are. Frankly, it was interesting for me to listen to some of those classes," Erik admitted. "It was good to see the staff wanting to hear those old details."

"It's always been a favorite around here," Scott said with a little smirk. "The kids might be a little disappointed at the teacher exchange, I should warn you."

"Well, from war time action stories to a sad, dirty life in a camp — it's a bit of a switch."

"But still good for them to learn," Scott said. He took in a deep breath and folded the 'national' news section to hand it to Erik. "I think Annie could use a hand with the kids, but thanks for sharing the news," he said with the slightest of smirks. "Merry Christmas."

* * *

The snow in the north woods was deep enough to reach the bottom of the windowsills, and it was still coming down steadily where K and Logan had tucked away with Elin. It hadn't been too long since they'd left the mansion, and it was pretty clear that the two of them were still on edge.

They hadn't bothered with a tree or any of the decorations, though they'd done a bit more than the simple meals they'd been doing all along. Elin was curled up on Logan's chest after nibbling at her first Christmas breakfast of lingonberries and whipped cream and was now clutching the little paper heart basket in blue and yellow that K had folded up for her the night before.

K had made her way over to Logan to curl up at his side too, just him and his girls listening to the crackle of the fire and watching the snow come down outside.

He was again weighing his options — and again considering leaving the girls tucked away in the cottage so he could hunt down the men in charge at Weapon X — when Elin sat up and wrapped her arms around his neck and snuggled in. He let out a sigh and kissed her before he gave her a little squeeze and invited K closer so that she and Elin were on each shoulder, and after a moment, Elin let go of his neck and settled in where she could kiss her mother on the nose and rest her hand on K's cheek.

It wasn't very long after that when Elin finally slipped off to sleep for a nap, but by that time, Logan simply wasn't interested in laying her down. The two girls were grounding and holding them both. It was a solid reminder of why he _shouldn't_ take off — and he knew it was the same for K as she gave him a little squeeze around the middle.

It wasn't quite lunchtime when Kurt arrived, his arms full of a few presents brought from home as he looked over the three of them. "Merry Christmas," he said when he arrived.

"Same to you," Logan rumbled. "Didn't expect to see you."

"I told you I'd try to stop by — and really, there was no other choice after this morning's festivities," Kurt said with a soft shrug as he gently set aside a long white envelope. "Everyone at home misses you greatly."

Elin picked her head up at hearing Kurt's voice and rubbed her eyes before she gave him a smile and said very clearly "Elf" before she raised her hands toward him.

Kurt froze, his tail stilling behind him, before a disbelieving smile started that didn't quite match the shining look in his eyes. He swept her up and pressed a gentle kiss to her cheek. "You are very smart, _liebes Mädchen,_ " he told her warmly. "When did you learn to say hello to me?"

She giggled quietly and snuggled into him, playing with his hair as she melted into his shoulder.

"She's been perfecting her words before she'll let anyone hear her say them," K told him. "She says a lot — she just doesn't like to share until she thinks it's perfect."

"Ah, a perfectionist," Kurt said with a nod and a grin at Elin, who was petting his cheek with an ever-widening grin. "Now where could she have gotten that?"

"No idea," Logan said with a shrug. "Must have been from hanging around Scott's kids."

"Yes, well," Kurt said, his voice suddenly a bit rougher than before. "They adore her as well." He nodded toward the white envelope. "Chance ... wanted to be sure Elin got a gift from him. He can't sign it yet, but Annie wrote his name on the paper."

At the mention of Chance, Elin wiggled until Kurt set her down and she made her way over to where she'd been curled up with her parents, holding on to the coffee table, only to return with the little paper heart and hold her arms up again.

Kurt's mouth was slightly parted and his eyebrows raised as he watched the little one, though he managed a smile again when he picked her up and booped her nose. "You really are so smart," he told her. "You've been practicing your walking while I've been gone too, haven't you?"

She rubbed her nose for a moment then booped him back before she wrapped her arms around his neck and melted into him again.

"Just us to entertain her — and she's getting bored," K said with a shrug. "So she's working on going places."

"A dangerous pastime indeed," Kurt said lightly, snuggling Elin as best he could as he sat down across from the other two. "You two will have your hands full keeping up with her."

"We'll manage," she replied, taking the opportunity to lean on Logan a little more solidly.

"Well, everyone at home sent a few more things for Elin to play with. I'm sure that will occupy her attention for a day or two," Kurt teased. "There's even a present or two in there for the two of you."

"I'm happy with the teddy bear I've got, thanks," K replied.

"Oh, Kate was sure to get Elin one of those," Kurt said, a bit of sparkle in his eyes. "Of course."

"Of course," Logan said with a nod.

Kurt leaned back, still snuggling Elin before he let out a soft sigh and smiled at the two of them. "You missed a good show this morning. Our resident fearless leaders insisted on a family gathering. Not Scott — the twins."

"Change of leadership shifted fast."

"They were impossible to say no to," Kurt said with a bit of a laugh. "Especially as there are two of them with identical determined expressions."

"Oh … of course. That happens after we go," Logan said, shaking his head.

Kurt's smile slipped the slightest before he waved his free hand. "It seemed to me they'll be doing it for the rest of their lives. I'm sure you'll be seeing it often when you come back."

"Yeah — but the first time they hit him together? At once? Figures."

"And Peter was with his aunt, so we don't have it on video," Kurt said, realizing it with a frown before he shook his head. "I'll make sure we capture it next time so you can appreciate it fully the next time I drop by."

"You really don't have to do that. Or pop in," Logan told him. "You've got your own crap to take care of."

"With the way this smart little _Prinzessin_ is growing?" Kurt asked, tipping his head to Elin before he kissed the top of her head. "How can I stay away?"

"Self-preservation?" Logan replied with one eye closed. "I've heard it's a thing."

"I've heard such things too, but I simply don't believe in them," Kurt said lightly.

"You probably should," K told him.

"Yes, perhaps," he said. "But I also believe in preserving others — and preserving memories and friendships. And as you are my best friend, I think that means you're stuck with me. I'm so sorry." Kurt pulled out his best, most teasing smile.

"Yeah, sorry about that luck of yours," Logan countered. "You have time for a drink before you go?"

"With you? Of course," Kurt said without hesitation.

K just got up to set the boys up and give them a minute if they needed it — though aside from an update on the goings on, there wasn't much said, and Elin seemed perfectly content to stay curled up on Kurt, half singing a little tuneless song to herself.

It was clear Kurt didn't want to leave Elin at all when he finally cleared his throat and said, "I should get back — Krissy is probably awake by now."

"Glad you came by," Logan told him, and K gave him a kiss as she took Elin back. But before the little girl was settled, she leaned back toward Kurt and all but shoved the paper heart into his chest.

"Chance," she said very seriously, then leaned further to steal another hug and kiss the very tip of Kurt's nose.

Kurt very quickly leaned forward to kiss the top of her head so Elin didn't see the shine to his eyes. " _Kluges Mädchen_ ," he whispered as he gently took the heart in his hand.

" _Tack,_ " Elin said back.

Kurt looked up at K and said in a rough voice, "She is… wonderful. I hope you are teaching her German." He was trying to tease, but the emotion was plain to see on his face.

"Little bits," K admitted as Kurt handed Elin back to her mother. "She doesn't know the difference yet, but she will."

" _Genial_ ," he whispered out before he just held up the heart so Elin could see that he had it and teleported away to the privacy of a hall in the mansion so he could lean against the wall and take in several very shaky breaths, his hand pressed over his eyes, before he teleported to where he knew the twins would still be playing with their new Christmas things.

Both Scott and Annie looked up in surprise, but Kurt knew he couldn't speak to either of them, not when he had his every ounce of focus on this one simple task.

He made his way over to the twins and crouched down beside Chance, who grinned up at him cheerfully. "Pway?" he offered, holding out one of his toys.

"Not right now," Kurt replied. He took in a breath and held it as the little boy tipped his head at Kurt curiously. "I took Elin the painting you made for her," he said softly, and Chance broke into a huge grin.

"Thank you!" he said earnestly.

"She wanted me to give you something in return," Kurt continued, still crouched down at eye level, and his heart simply broke on seeing the _ecstatic_ grin on Chance's face as he bounced slightly in place.

"Pwesent fwom Ewin?" he asked, completely abandoning the toys he had been playing with as he looked over Kurt, obviously trying to see where Elin's present was hidden.

Not quite trusting himself to speak, Kurt nodded and held out the blue and yellow heart that Elin had given him, and Chance picked it up as gently as he would something that was made of glass before he broke into little giggles, pressing it to his heart before he kissed the paper heart. "Tarly!" he called out, turning to his sister with a delighted giggle. "Tarly! I get pwesent fwom Ewin!"

Charlie giggled with delight as she rushed over to see the little heart. "Very pwetty," she said as she patted her brother's arm.

Kurt looked up and caught the open expression on Scott's face for just a moment before Scott looked him in the eyes. "I'll meet you there," Scott said simply.

Kurt nodded once and spared one last glance at the giggling twins before he teleported up to his room. Kate and Krissy were lying on the floor as Kate made silly noises at Krissy and Krissy tried to grab her mom's hair.

Kurt looked out over the scene of his little family for a moment before he took a breath and closed his eyes, straightening up the slightest bit. "I'm going to Bed Stuy," he said. "Would you like to join me there or do you and Krissy want to stay he-"

"No, let's go," Kate said quickly as soon as she saw his expression. She scrambled to her feet and ran over to him, wrapping her arms around him to all but tackle him in a kiss. She pulled him tight to her and kissed him hard, and when she was done, she kept her arms around him. " _Ich vermisse sie auch_ ," she whispered to him.

He nestled into her hair for a long moment before he felt he was composed enough to take both of his girls to Clint's — and to get down to work. He couldn't let things stand like they were. Not for a moment longer.

* * *

J. Jonah Jameson was working late. He was always working late these days, even moreso than usual, especially because his son was on assignment, and they had only been able to speak on Skype for a little while. And so he'd spent most of the holidays at his desk.

This wasn't all that unusual for him, though. What was unusual was the fact that he was alone — because unbeknownst to him, he had not been alone for weeks now, except for his tour of the mansion.

For weeks, three blonde women had followed him — telepaths and mutants, all three. It seemed Weapon X hadn't liked the stunt he'd pulled in his interview with Kate Bishop — but if he was going to insist on bringing their activities to the surface, they wanted to control the message and use it to their advantage.

And, if the paper JJ was reading with steadily widening eyes, was any indication, they were definitely using it to their advantage.

He read the news through a bit of a haze, frowning at what he was seeing. He had been aware, in a way, of what was happening, but this…

This was far worse than anything he would have pushed for in his right mind. Violation of civil rights, loss of due process. Sure, he would be the first in line to say that vigilantes and mutants and anyone who felt the need to wear a mask was dangerous and needed to be brought to justice. But in due process of the law.

And now ... now he was looking at sources in Washington — his own sources — who were saying the House had a supermajority in support of the mutant tracking bill. It was about to be veto-proof, and it was all JJ's fault. Or, more appropriately, it was the Cuckoos' fault. Weapon X's fault.

But no one knew that. As far as the country knew… this was his fault. J. Jonah Jameson had helped to construct some of the worst anti-mutant fervor the country had seen in years.

Come January, the bill would be law — and the feral mutants would be the first on the list. And it wasn't going to stop there.

But then the door to JJ's office opened, and after a moment's deepened haze, he very quickly forgot what it was he was upset about.

….

Translations from German:

 _liebes Mädchen -_ dear girl

 _Kluges Mädchen -_ smart girl

 _Genial_ \- ingenious

From Swedish:

 _Tack_ \- thank you

 **Notes: It's not exactly the ending all tied up with a bow, but here we are at the end of Volume 12. Head on over to Canucklehead Cowgirl's profile to read Volume 13, "Chance for Reunions," where obviously, the focus will be on fixing alllll of the stuff we broke in this volume ;) It's gonna be quite the ride!**


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